Asha Sharma
Infertility has become ominous problem. On an average, about 10% of all couples face difficulty in starting a family and this creates a feeling of great personal failure, particularly in India where religious and socio-economic traditions have made it almost imperative for everyone to have children. A significant association had been found between impaired semen quality including sperm count, motility and morphology. In this review, the various contributory etiological factors i.e., exposure to heavy metals, pesticides, industrial chemicals, endocrine factors, genetics causes and modern life style had been discussed which have a serious impact on male infertility. In this article we analyzed data from different sources and present evidences of the possible etiology and risk factors for male infertility. There is a need to emerge at the indiscriminate use and disposal of environmental chemicals. Especially pesticides and industrial chemicals as the chemicals enter the food chain, surface and ground water which had potential for exposure during the critical period of development further avoiding tobacco smoking, excessive alcoholism, excessive heat exposure to the testes can help in improving the semen quality.
