AB23. Male infertility: forgotten issue in men’s health

Abstract: In general, the man’s response to infertility has been viewed as taking less of an emotionally than his partner’s. While the findings on quality of life (QoL) of infertile women have shown mainly agreement, this seems not to be the case in men. Studies on men’s QoL have resulted in inconclusive findings. It is clear that male infertility is one of important issues in men’s health as it could alter the men’s self-esteem (read: quality of life). Medical recommendations to resolve male infertility problems can be classified into three categories; surgical or medical therapy, donor insemination (DI), and assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Psychological research and consultation have been most implicated with the latter two recommendations. The fact that some infertile couples can realize their goal of forming a biological family when here to fore such as possibility was denied them, serves to strengthen the family unit. In vitro fertilization (IVF) offers a chance to produce a child for those men who are sub-fertile, that is, have a low sperm count, poor sperm motility or morphology. Overall, there is much evidence to show that women react more intensely to IVF than men. Research has shown that prior to IVF, women report more anxiety and depression, and after treatment failure depressive symptomatology is less common in men. More surprisingly are recent findings, which show that men and women are similar in terms of how they respond to different stages of an IVF cycle. Authors’ experience with PESA and TESE showed good results in the treatment of male factor infertility, with good participation of the male’s partner.

Keywords: Male infertility; quality of life (QoL); testicular sperm extraction (TESE); In vitro fertilization (IVF)