Endocrine problems and treatment.

Abstract

All drugs employed for the purpose of improving sperm production, motility, viability, and morphology may be expected to have positive effects in some patients. However, the wide variation in these measures in all men make the confirmation of beneficial effects difficult. It is likely that definitive therapy of the infertile male will not be very successful until the causes of idiopathic oligospermia can be clearly elucidated. At that time, it is possible that definitive therapy may be devised. Until then, the clinician can expect to continue to read controversial reports about the effects of various therapeutic agents on male infertility. Even varicocele ligation, long considered one of the few definitive therapies of oligospermia or azoospermia does not appear to be equally effective in all series. In our own series, varicocele ligation has been of little benefit to those men who need it most, those with sperm counts below 10 million/ml (11).