Declining fertility in developed countries along with rising number of immigrants and different fertility behavior exhibited by the immigrants make the immigrants' fertility an interesting topic in field of demography. However most of the studies on immigrants' fertility consider the female immigrants as their subject on the assumption that they represent the immigrants' fertility. This study t...

Spermatogenesis requires the concerted action of thousands of genes, all contributing to its efficiency to a different extent. The Y chromosome contains several testis-specific genes and among them the AZF region genes on the Yq and the TSPY1 array on the Yp are the most relevant candidates for spermatogenic function. TSPY1 was originally described as the putative gene for the gonadoblastoma lo...

Since the early 60s, in our lab we sought useful correlations of seminal traits and fertility in order to ultimately predict the reproductive outcome of bovine semen used in artificial breeding or the fertility of a specific male under natural service. Despite these efforts, to this day we can only account for approximately 50-60% of the variation in fertility among males by measuring seminal t...

As the age of paternity rises in the developed world, issues of chronic disease may affect prospective fathers. Given the high prevalence of hypertension, researchers have begun to explore the relationship between hypertensive disease and male fertility. The current literature suggests an association between hypertension and semen quality. The use of various antihypertensive medications has als...

S.J. Parekattil and A. Agarwal (eds.), Male Infertility: Contemporary Clinical Approaches, Andrology, ART & Antioxidants, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-3335-4_33, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 In the past 5–10 years, obesity has become a worldwide epidemic that has brought attention to learning more about the various causes, effects, and treatments. A combination of an increasingly accep...

in 30–50% of sub-fertile couples the male partner has poor semen quality, either because of low sperm count, poorly motile sperm or sperm with abnormal size and shape (morphology). This may result from inherent genetic factors, poor pre-natal testicular development or adult exposure to gonadotoxic agents. There are few proven therapies to improve semen quality. Therefore, the number and quality...