Stress, sexual dysfunctions, and male infertility

Involuntary childlessness is considered to be a chronic stressor for couples suffering from infertility. Stress itself may interfere with spermatogenesis and fertility rate. The long period of diagnostic and treatment procedures may also have a negative impact on the sex life of the infertile couple. In fact, we observed in such patients a higher frequency of male sexual disturbances expressed as erectile dysfunction, ejaculatory disorders, loss of libido and a decrease in the frequency of intercourse. We tried to partially overcome these sexual symptoms by administration of 50 mg of a type-V phosphodiesterase inhibitor (sildenafil) to two selected groups: patients collecting semen for artificial insemination and male partners of couples before post-coital testing. The results of this uncontrolled pilot study suggest that sildenafil is effective in increasing compliance of male patients facing infertile couple management procedures, and also in improving some sperm parameters, above all the number of sperm penetrating the cervical mucus.