ABSTRACT
Reproductive infertility, defined as the inability to conceive after one year of unprotected intercourse, affects 15% of couples in the United States (1). In up to 50% of these cases, a male factor is responsible. Scrotal abnormalities resulting in the disordered production of normal sperm count represent almost half of all male infertility cases (2); other conditions that produce male infertility include congenital and developmental anomalies such as cryptorchidism, Klinefelter’s syndrome, and agenesis of the vas deferens, seminal vesicles, and ejaculatory ducts, as well as varicoceles, hypopituitarism, and other endocrinopathies. Distal duct obstruction (including cysts and stones of the vas deferens, seminal vesicles, and ejaculatory ducts), and inflammatory or infective conditions such as mumps orchitis, syphilis, and bacterial infections involving the testes, epididymis, vas deferens, seminal vesicles, ejaculatory ducts, and prostate are also possible causes for male infertility (3).
