The beneficial effects of physical exercise on general health are well known; however, as exercise imposes great physical stress that challenges homeostasis, it can be detrimental to certain organs/systems of the body when it is exhaustively performed. Decreased seminal parameters and sex hormone levels have been reported in male athletes and, therefore, a possible impairment of male fertility ...

Azoospermia and/or severe oligozoospermia can be treated as principal factors of male infertility. Specifically, azoospermia that stands for 1% of males and 10% of infertile male population has been mostly unexplained (idiopathic), however, it is suspected for its genetic and/or molecular background.1 Pertaining to molecular background of severe oligo-astheno-teratozoospermia (OAT) – the meioti...

Varicocele is often cited as the most common cause of male factor infertility. Arguments in support of this statement include reports of increased prevalence of varicocele in populations of infertile men compared with fertile or otherwise unselected men, association of varicocele with abnormal semen parameters, and improvements in semen parameters and/or pregnancy rates after varicocele repair....

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by the appearance of cafe au lait spots, neurofibromas and Lisch nodules. There is an established link between NF1 and the development of breast cancer in women; however, due to the rarity of both NF1 and male breast cancer, the same link has yet to be elucidated in men. The concurrent presentation of NF1 and male br...

Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of gonadotrophins administration to men with idiopathic subfertility on spontaneous pregnancy rate and in assisted reproductive techniques. Search strategy: We searched the all relevant databases. Searches were not limited by language. The bibliographies of included, excluded trials and abstracts of major meetings were searched for additional trials. A...

BACKGROUND Previous research has suggested an interaction between distress and male fertility. The present longitudinal study sought to deliver evidence for a negative impact of distress due to infertility on sperm concentration. METHODS The sample consisted of 120 patients who twice visited an andrological clinic on their own initiative for fertility work-ups. Baseline and follow-up examinat...

Male subfertility is a major problem that is encounted in today’s urological practice. Occupation plays an important role among the factors contributing to male subfertility. The present study evaluates the pattern of occupational distribution in a subfertile population attending to urology and andrologyclinics. The current study included 120 male patients with a history of subfertility. Accord...

A practical approach to semen analysis (SA) interpretation and the initial management of subfertile men is presented. Each parameter of the SA is described and management recommendations based upon SA findings are provided. The indications for and interpretation of adjunctive diagnostic testing for male factor subfertility are also discussed.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the impact of subinguinal microsurgical varicocelectomy on semen parameters and pregnancy outcomes in couples with male factor subfertility. DESIGN Case series. SETTING Male Infertility Clinic in an academic institution in Hong Kong. PATIENTS The clinical records of 42 consecutive subfertile male patients who had subinguinal microsurgical varicocelectomy (from Jan...

Many flowering plants possess a self-incompatibility system to prevent inbreeding. In Brassica rapa, self/non-self recognition in mating is established through S-haplotype-specific interactions between stigma receptors and S-locus protein 11 (SP11, also called S-locus cysteine-rich protein) that is encoded at the highly polymorphic S-locus. Here we describe the solution structure of the SP11 pr...