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Updated: Sep 26, 2026

Treatment Model for Young Patients with Psychogenic Erectile Dysfunction and Resultant Infertility
Published on: May 30, 2025
[Somatization and alexithymia in male infertility. A replication study]
R Conrad1, G Schilling, T Hagemann
1Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie der Universität Bonn.
Background And Objective:
In a previous study, we found a higher degree of alexithymia and somatization in infertile men (Hum Reprod 2001 Vol.16(3),587-592). This study was designed to confirm the findings of the former study
Patients/Methods:
88 infertile men (48 idiopathic infertility, 40 somatic infertility) were consecutively enrolled in the study. The control group consisted of 44 healthy men. Alexithymia was measured by the 20-item-Toronto-Alexithymia-Scale;somatization was measured by the Symptom Checklist-90-R.
Results:
There were no differences between the subgroups of infertile men. The study group showed a significantly higher sum score in the TAS-20 (p<0.01) and a higher score on the scale somatization in the Symptom Checklist-90-R (p<0.05) compared to the control group.
Conclusions:
Our study replicated the findings of the previous investigation. Alexithymia and somatization are discussed as consequences of coping with male infertility.
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