Semen analyses in Hansen's disease

Disturbances in semen quality can be induced by exogenous factors including trivial illnesses like throat infection and viral infection with fever. Hansen's disease presents with problems such as long term dependence on drugs, hyperthermia, haemolysis and anxiety due to social stigma. In the present study the semen quality of patients with tuberculoid-type leprosy was studied during and after withdrawal of therapy. Patients generally had low sperm counts and spermatozoal motility was low with a greater number of abnormal forms compared with control subjects. Patients did not show a circannual variation in their sperm count as was observed in controls. The patients were oligozoospermic during their first year of medication, showing improvement in subsequent years.