DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2016.v04i02.006

Pages: 118-120

Infertility is a major clinical, social and economical concern. Infertility not only affects one’s ability to have children but also has emotional, psychological, social and familial effects. It affects approximately 15% of couples in reproductive age. For many years, it was assumed that most reproductive problems could be attributed to the female partner but research in recent years has demonstrated that nearly 40-50% of infertility is caused by a male factor. Male factor infertility has been linked with numerous irregularities including sperm number, motility and morphology. ICSI (Intra cytoplasmic sperm injection) is the most recent development in the treatment of male infertility enabling couples who were previously deemed infertile to produce offsprings. Therefore the risk is that genetic cause of infertility increases in future generations, as demonstrated for male infertility. Thus, the identification of genetic factors in the infertile couple has become good practice for appropriate management of the infertile couple.