[Male sterility. Experience of an andrologist]

Male sterility is taken as a paradigm for a new approach to andrology. Although known about since Antiquity, responsibility of man in conjugal sterility has only been recognized in the last half century. All the same, even to day, it is not always accepted: although apparently obsolete since women's sexual liberation, this denial often manifests itself in patients behaviour, as well as in their doctor's. Until now, as far as we know, no andrologist has taken into account this strange denial. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to the need for the andrologist to be aware of it in his approach to the sterile man. History of male sterility emphasizes the coexistence, since Antiquity, of two opposite preoccupations, those of doctors thoughtful of proving male sterility existence and those of philosophers, often determined to deny it. Steps of knowledge as well as social structures institutionalizing its dissembling are described. Sexual liberation which claimed to put and end to women's dependence on men is often illusory; acceptance of equality of sexes by men is often more apparent that real. At present, the medicalization of male sterility leads some patients and even some doctors to an activist behaviour which demonstrate their inability to accept even the concept of man sterility. In our opinion, to be an andrologist in the full sense of the word means not only to know the biology of reproduction and the progresses of research in this domain, but also and mainly to be aware of the permanence of prejudices and fantasies infallibly conveyed by the idea of sterility in every one, andrologist included.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)