Medical treatment of idiopathic oligozoospermia and male factor subfertility

Pharmaceutical treatment for the so-called idiopathic oligozoospermia (I. O.) is possible and effective in a fair proportion of patients with the syndrome provided that appropriate investigative procedures may identify the major disorder or its level of disruption, this abnormality is reversible and appropriate prognostic indices for the treatment's success are devised and validated. According to the evidence available, minimal evaluation and prognostic indices for treatment eligibility in normogonadotropic men with I. O. include a routine work-up but, mainly, microscopical assessment of spermatogenesis and appraisal of Sertoli cell's functional capacity. Published data indicate that men with hypospermatogenesis without maturational arrest, respond favorably to agents stimulating Sertoli cells and germinal epithelium with increased sperm production. Furthermore, Sertoli cell activity as judged by cell-specific indices such as inhibin B secretion, may provide additional discriminating power to the microscopical picture of the testis. In this context, precise identification of the causative factor(s), together with the establishment of prognostic indices are the most important criteria on which the decision, for or against medical treatment in I. O., should be based. Obviously, further basic research and clinical trials are urgently needed in this particular field, and this should be a major task for clinical andrologists.