Background: Zinc in human semen seems to play an important role in the physiology of spermatozoa. Zinc deficiency leads to gonadal dysfunction, decreases testicular weight, and causes shrinkage of seminiferous tubules. The adult human body contains 1-3 g of zinc, about 0.1% of which is replenished daily. Excessively high amounts of zinc has been reported in human seminal plasma by many authors,...

Male infertility is a major cause of problems for many couples in conceiving a child. Recently, lifestyle pastimes such as alcohol, tobacco and marijuana have been shown to have further negative effects on male reproduction. The endocannabinoid system (ECS), mainly through the action of anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) at cannabinoid (CB(1), CB(2)) and vanilloid (TRPV1) recept...

The estrogen receptor β (ERβ) gene plays an important role in the regulation of fertility in both males and females. The RsaI polymorphism in ERβ is associated with male infertility in Caucasian patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of this polymorphism in the etiology of idiopathic male infertility and its correlation with smoking habits. We analyzed 287 Brazilian me...

background: infertility is described nearly universally as an extremely stressful condition with enduring effects on the marriage as well as each partner’s well-being. the present study was done to compare stress reactions, coping styles, subjective well-being and its sub-scales in fertile and infertile women. materials and methods : this analytic cross-sectional study enrolled 120 women (60 fe...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that infertile Nigerian women have higher serum levels of antibodies against Neisseria gonorrhoea and Treponema pallidum compared with fertile controls. DESIGN The prevalence of serum antibodies against N gonorrhoea and T pallidum was compared in fertile and infertile Nigerian women. SETTING Population based case-control study in Ile-Ife, southwestern Nigeri...

Background: Defective sperm quality is a significant cause of infertility in men. It is known that nitric oxide (NO) is a highly reactive free radical gas which has a dual function, being both a cytotoxic and necessary molecule for normal sperm production. Materials and Methods: To investigate correlation between NO levels with sperm parameters, a case-control study were designed with total of ...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether Thr(307)-Asn(680) and Ala(307)-Ser(680) polymorphisms of the follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSH-R) gene are associated with male infertility, semen quality, and reproductive hormones. PATIENTS AND METHODS The FSH-R polymorphisms at codons 680 and 307 were analysed by restriction-fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) in 172 infertile men and in an equal num...