Question

Write a brief note on the causes of infertility.

Answer 1

INFERTILITY
Definition: Infertility is the inability to conceive or produce children in spite of unprotected sexual cohabitation. The term is not synonym of sterility which means complete inability to produce children.
Reasons: There may be several reasons for infertility in males and females. These reasons could be physical, congenital diseases, drugs, immunological or even psychological.

•  Infertility in Males :
  A fertile male deposits about 3-4 mL semen per ejaculation, which contains over 200 million normal, motile sperm. A man is infertile if the semen has low sperm count or abnormal sperm structure or poor sperm motility.
  The various causes of male infertility may include cryptorchidism (failure of testes to descend into scrotum), hyperthermia (higher temperature in scrotal sac due to tight undergarments), blockage of vas deferens, alcoholism (inhibits spermatogenesis), infection with mumps virus after puberty, deficiency of gonadotropin,  ejaculation defect, exposure to radiation, etc.The condition of low sperm count is called oligospermia, near absence of live sperm as azospermia, low sperm motility as asthenozoospermia and defect in sperm structure as teratozoospermia .
• Infertility in Females
  Infertility in females may be due to irregular ovulation or no ovulation or defect in the genital tract like impaired motility of fallopian tube, defective uterine endometrium, defects in the cervix, defective vaginal growth or deficiency of sex hormones.