Male infertility testicular cancer

Male infertility may result from cancer surgery, radiotherapy, hormonal imbalances, or damage of germinal stem cells. Testicular damage from radiotherapy depends on the treatment field, total dose, and fractionation schedule. Depending on the radiation, sperm counts may return to pretreatment levels in 10 to 24 months after therapy or maybe permanent in 80% of men after total-body irradiation for transplant. 

Infertility rates in both women and men have been continually rising. It is estimated that approximately 50% of human conceptuses fail to reach term. Sperm count concentrations in men have been continually declining over the past 50 years. At the same time, increases in hypspadias, cryp-tochidism, and testicular cancer have further contributed to increasing male infertility. Xenoestrogens have contributed to male infertility as well as to female infertility. Spontaneous abortion rates and preterm births continue to rise, contributing further to infertility. 

Male infertility manifests in several ways. These include sex organ malformation, reduced sperm count, reduced level of seminal fluid, decreased libido, and testicular cancer. Discussions of these conditions, all of which have been attributed to xenobiotic influences (primarily by endocrine disruptors 41 ), follow. 

The incidence of testicular cancer rose sharply in the twentieth century. I48 Because testicular cancer occurs predominantly in younger men (aged 15-19), this increase has contributed to overall male infertility. The steep increase in testicular cancer has been associated with in utero exposures to endocrine disruptorsJ56,57 ... 

Paduch DA. Testicular cancer and male infertility. Curr Opin Urol 2006 16(6) 419 27. 

Susan H. Benoff was formerly director of the Fertihty Research Laboratories of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. She was also an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of New York University School of Medicine and director of the Molecular Biology Laboratories, Division of Human Reproduction, in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of North Shore University Hospital. Her research interests were in male infertility and testicular cancer with emphasis on the role that environmental exposure to heavy metals and compounds with hormone-like activity may play in the causes of these disorders. She has been an active member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, most recently serving as chair of the Environment and Reproduction Special Interest Group. She is also on the Board of Di-... 

---