What is "azoospermia"?

What is "azoospermia"?

Philip Werthman, FACS (Director, Center for Male Reproductive Medicine) gives expert video advice on: What causes infertility in men? and more...

PhAzoospermia is the term we use to describe the condition where there is no sperm present in the semen and this can be for a variety of different reasons. Number one, someone could be making sperm normally in his testicles but has a blockage so the sperm can't get out into the semen or number two, there can be a problem with sperm production in the testicles such that the man is making no sperm whatoever or very, very small amounts of sperm so small in fact that you don't see any sperm in the semen even though they are present in the testicle. The good thing about azoospermia is that the majority of men can now become fathers through in vitro fertilization or through correction of blockages whereas ten or fifteen years ago this was an impossibility. So reproductive technology has advanced so much in the last ten years that very few men can no longer be genetic fathers.