In Vietnam, each year there are about 1 million infertile couples, accounting for about 7.7%. Of these, 50% are under the age of 30.
The rate of infertility due to men accounts for 40%, due to women accounts for 40%, 10% is due to both husband and wife and 10% is unknown. This shows that the cause of infertility and sterility comes from both men and women. In recent years, the group of causes of male infertility has begun to receive more attention than in the previous period.
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Quang - President of the Vietnam Association of Gender Medicine, Director of the Center for Andrology (Viet Duc Friendship Hospital) emphasized that infertility is a common medical problem, in which the cause from the male side accounts for nearly half of the cases. 10% of infertility cases of unknown cause are a challenge for doctors and scientists in finding a treatment method.
Associate Professor Quang said that environmental and lifestyle factors have a negative impact on male fertility; in which sperm count is significantly lower in people who smoke e-cigarettes and cigarettes.
"In overweight and obese people, the percentage of altered semen parameters also increases. Overweight male children are more likely to become infertile men," said Dr. Quang.
After examining and treating patients, experts and doctors have identified groups of causes that can cause male infertility such as: Due to pathology (obstruction of the vas deferens; varicocele; retrograde ejaculation; infectious diseases...); causes due to genetic factors; unscientific lifestyle habits affecting the quality and quantity of sperm...
MSc. Dr. Dinh Huu Viet, Head of the Department of Andrology - Hanoi Andrology and Infertility Hospital said: "Previously, for patients with no sperm, we usually only stopped at endocrine tests, biological index tests, chromosome tests, AZF gene tests, testicular ultrasound... but now we also have more in-depth genetic tests to screen for genes that affect sperm in men, from which we can sequence genes to find additional causes of no sperm that we did not know before.
In some cases, there is a genetic mutation, although the gene is very small, but it can still cause azoospermia. Although there is still much debate about this content, it can be seen that performing in-depth genetic tests is a new direction, suggesting that clinicians evaluate the percentage of sperm found in patients before surgery, thereby leading to the decision of whether or not to perform sperm surgery for patients.
Sperm sample preparation and processing is one of the important steps of the In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) method, especially for severe sperm abnormalities when sperm quality and quantity are very limited, even the number of sperm can be counted, typically non-obstructive azoospermia or testicular microsurgery (Micro TESE) - The current method can be considered the last "salvation" for azoospermic patients.
