Chemosterilization: Spermatogenesis, steroidogenesis, reproductive functions, and behavior; from historical perspective to contemporary practice

The knowledge of the effect of chemosterilants on the testes and spermatogenesis is much less complete than on ovaries and oogenesis. The classical sterile male-techniques were based on the sterilization of male insects by irradiation, which were found to cause the rise of dominant lethal mutations that affect either entire chromosomes or individual chromatids. In those experiments, changes were not usually found on sperm, but most often they are evident in anomalies in the division of the zygote in the fertilized egg.[1] Dominant lethal mutations in Cochliomyia hominivorax (screw-worm) were described in detail in one of such classical experiments by LaChance and Riemann[1] and LaChance and Crystal.[2] Information and complications associated with dominant lethal mutations produced in insects by irradiations as well as sterilants were presented by LaChance, who has included a comprehensive bibliography comprising works that dealt with this topic long before the era of chemosterilants.[3]