European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

EPIDEMIOLOGY OF MALE FACTOR INFERTILITY AMONG A SRI LANKAN POPULATION

Anurudda Udaya Bandara Pethiyagoda*, Kalyani Pethiyagoda, Keshani Nishadika and Charuni Danushika Ranasinghe

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Infertility, which defined as an inability to achieve a pregnancy following one year of unprotected sexual intercourse, affects 15% of all couples worldwide. A male factor contributes in part or whole to 50% of above couples. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive study conducted among patients with male factor infertility at urology and andrology clinic, Teaching hospital, Peradeniya. Interview based questionnaire was performed with 156 patients to assess their demographic details. Results: Mean age of the study population was 34.30 years. Majority of patients belonged to the age group of 31-40 years and mainly consisted of patients engaging in blue collar jobs. Regarding the types of subfertility, 92.3% of our study population had primary subfertility whereas 7.7% had secondary subfertility. Factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, infections such as mumps and TB and exposure to pesticides and high temperatures had a significant influence on male infertility. Positive family history for male factor subfertility was there in 2.4% of patients and 1.4% had a family history of androgen deficiency. Conclusions: New studies should be done over a large sample in different cultural and different geographical areas to get a more comprehensive understanding.

Keywords: Male infertility, Epidemiology, Sri Lanka.