There are two main reasons why sperm may be absent from semen. Obstructive azoospermia is the result of a blockage in the male reproductive tract; in this case, sperm are produced in the testicle but are trapped in the epididymis. Non-obstructive azoospermia is the result of severely impaired or non-existent sperm production. There are three different sperm-harvesting procedures that obstructiv...

Over the past 20 years, there has been a clear trend to increase in number of infertile men Ukraine, their percentage reaches 50% couples. There is significant male infertility caused by azoospermia – lack sperm ejaculate. In infertility, found 10–15% patients, among other forms pathospermia. Given ambiguity ideas about etiology, pathogenesis and treatment diagnostic approaches for various type...

Maturation arrest (MA) refers to failure of germ cell development leading to clinical nonobstructive azoospermia. Although the azoospermic factor (AZF) region of the human Y chromosome is clearly implicated in some cases, thus far very little is known about which individual Y-chromosome genes are important for complete male germ cell development. We sought to identify single genes on the Y chro...

In human testes, stem cells such as spermatogonia need to produce progeny cells continually. Telomere length is maintained throughout spermatogenesis, i.e. from spermatogonia to spermatozoon, and telomerase is reported to be present in the testes. In this study, we measured the activity of telomerase in the human testes of 16 cases of idiopathic azoospermia, 10 of obstructive azoospermia, and 1...

Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after 1 year of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. About 15% of couples are affected. Male factors account for about 50% of couples with infertility.1 Approximately 10 to 15% of infertile men suffer from azoospermia—complete absence of sperms in the ejaculate. Among these azoospermic patients, approximately 40% have complete obstruction i...

PURPOSE We evaluated the retrieval rates and reproductive outcomes of percutaneous sperm retrieval according to the cause of obstructive azoospermia. MATERIALS AND METHODS We retrospectively studied the records of 146 men with obstructive azoospermia who underwent sperm retrieval for intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Patients were grouped by the cause of obstruction, including 32 with congeni...

Congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD) found in otherwise healthy infertile males, is associated with a high incidence of mutated cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) alleles, and is considered a genital form of cystic fibrosis (CF). The CF gene may also be involved in the aetiology of male infertility in cases other than CBAVD. The present study was unde...