ABSTRACT
A clear diagnosis of the cause of male factor infertility can be made in only a small proportion of men who present with infertility. Many of these men labelled as having idiopathic male factor infertility for which there are no specic therapies. Indeed, a survey a few years ago of more than 7000 men with male factor infertility revealed that there was no identiable cause in 48.5%, idiopathic abnormal semen in 26% (12% oligozoospermia, 7% teratozoospermia, 4% asthenozoospermia), varicocele in 12% (and this diagnosis is disputed), infection in 7%, immunological factors in 3%, congenital and sexual factors each 2% and endocrine factors 0.6% [1].
