Role of Ultrasonography in Detection of Male Infertility

Abstract

Infertility is the inability of a couple of reproductive age to have conception even after one year without interruption of sexual activity. Young couples who are affected with infertility are 10-15% worldwide and 40-60 % are males. Approximately 80 million people are facing this problem. Azoospermia is the main presenting symptom of infertility. Various diseases such as varicocele, orchitis, and trauma are the most common causes of infertility. Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of scrotal ultrasonography in the diagnosis of causes of male infertility and to check the sonographic findings of the normal or pathological scrotum. Methods: Various search engines were used to perform a systemic literature review. Google scholar, NCBI, PubMed, and Medscape provide the articles for this systemic literature review. Male infertility, ultrasound, and causes are the main keywords that are used for searching articles related to this topic. Results: 45 articles were reviewed and 40 were included in this systematic review. The main finding of this review is that most of the infertile patients had azoospermia. The most common cause of male infertility is a varicocele and other causes include hydrocele, epididymal-orchitis, cysts of testes and epididymis, and trauma. For effective diagnosis and treatment of infertility sonographic scrotal evaluation must be included. Conclusions: The conclusion of this review is that measurement of the volume of testes and detection of varicocele by ultrasonography is very helpful for the physician for assessment of causes of male infertility