Experts present plan of action to treat male infertility

Researchers bemoan low level of awareness of the problem / Münster andrologists involved in study published in Nature Reviews Urology journal. At least one in seven heterosexual couples worldwide is involuntarily childless. The reason is not only the woman's infertility but also, in almost just as many cases, infertility in the man. Little is known, however, about the influences of genetic factors and environmental conditions on the production of sperm cells and, as a result, on the causes of male infertility. This needs to change, say 26 leading specialists from ten countries in a joint review article published in the journal Nature Reviews Urology - because, they say, the gaps in our knowledge might lead, among other things, to existing illnesses underlying male fertility not being recognised. Also, they add, the healthy female partner bears a disproportionately heavy burden if the couple resort to medically assisted procreation because no causal therapy for the infertility is possible. The interdisciplinary team of authors - coordinated by reproductive researcher Prof. Moira O´Bryan from the University of Melbourne in Australia - used a list of 13 questions to analyse the current status of the research being done.