title: Medical treatment of male infertility.
abstract: After an appropriate clinical and laboratory assessment of a patient's fertility status, the clinician must often decide whether specific and empiric treatment is indicated. Specific treatment may take the form of replacement therapy (exogenous gonadotropins or GnRH) for pituitary or hypothalamic failure, inhibition of prolactin secretion, antimicrobial therapy, or immunosuppressive therapy for demonstrable immunologic infertility. Finally, ejaculatory dysfunction often requires sympathomimetic agents. Alternatively, in the normogonadotropic oligospermic patient, the major form of empiric therapy relies on the enhancement of physiologic hormone levels that influence spermatogenesis. Such "stimulation" therapy may be achieved by GnRH analogues, antiestrogens, exogenous gonadotropins, or androgens.
mesh_terms: D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000628:therapy; D004542:Ejaculation; D005832:Genital Diseases, Male / Q000188:drug therapy; D006062:Gonadotropins / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006065:Gonadotropins, Pituitary / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006966:Hyperprolactinemia / Q000188:drug therapy; D007006:Hypogonadism / Q000188:drug therapy; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000503:physiopathology; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D010906:Pituitary Hormone-Releasing Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013737:Testis / Q000503:physiopathology; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy
chemical_list: D006062:Gonadotropins; D006065:Gonadotropins, Pituitary; D010906:Pituitary Hormone-Releasing Hormones