Fertility and the male

From his teenage years until beyond the age of seventy a fertile man will produce around 1000 sperm cells per heartbeat. These are produced in his testicles and then stored in a long coiled tube on the back of the testicle until ejaculation. However, just producing sperm does not make a man fertile, what really matters about sperm is quantity and quality. This is assessed by having a sperm count.

Often fertility problems are caused by sperm not being able to swim properly or because very few sperm are produced. Some men produce semen that does not contain any sperm. This is called azoospermia. Half of azoospermic men have normal sperm production from the testes, but there is a blockage which prevents sperm from entering the semen.

This may be due to:-

1. Failure of the sperm passages to develop.

2. A blockage of the sperm transport tubes.

3. A previous vasectomy operation (male sterilisation).

All of these can potentially be treated via surgical sperm retrieval (see later).

For the other 50% there is a failure of adequate sperm production by the testes, this could be caused by a genetic problem, as a result of previous disease or cancer treatment.