Active clinical trials for "Infertility, Male"

Study rationale An increasing proportion of the worldwide population is being infected with COVID-19. There are ongoing and currently unanswered safety concerns about the effects of COVID-19 on reproductive health. It will be immensely reassuring to rapidly report that COVID-19 has no detectable effects on male endocrine or sperm function. Conversely, if COVID-19 does impair male reproductive health, appropriate screening can be performed in couples trying to conceive, and further research can be undertaken. The proposed study will be simple, rapid, and authoritative for the UK and worldwide.

The microbiome plays an important role in health and in some unknown etiologies. Some previous studies have identified bacteria in semen as a potential factor in male infertility. More studies are needed to discover associations between microbiomes and semen quality. In this study, forty semen samples from donors candidates will be collected where clinical criteria for seminal quality (volume, concentration, motility and morphology) will be measured and bacterial communities examined. With the next-generation sequencing of gene technology and bioinformatic analysis, we can investigate the associations between bacterial communities and seminal quality. It would be interesting to know if the proportion of certain bacteria is significantly higher in samples of normal seminal quality or significantly higher in samples of low seminal quality. This study could contribute to the current understanding of certain etiologies of male fertility.

Multidisciplinary, multicentric, cross-sectional study on men in infertile couples who conduct their sperm test through their diagnosis of infertility

Sperm analysis following World Health Organization guidelines is unable to explain the molecular causes of male infertility when basic sperm parameters are within a normal range and women do not present gynaecological pathology. Subsequently, there is a need for accurate diagnostic tools in this sense and microarray technology applied to sperm analysis emerges as a promising field

This study is being conducted at the University Hospital of Lund University in Malmo, Sweden, in collaboration with the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The study will try to identify genetic causes of impaired sperm production and male infertility. It will focus on the possible role of the MTHFR and CBS genes, which regulate absorption and metabolism of the vitamin, folate in infertility. If the nutritional intake or metabolism of this vitamin is related to male infertility, then this cause of infertility would be potentially curable. Fertile and infertile men between 20 and 45 years of age may be eligible for this study. Criteria include the following: Fertile men: men whose partners are younger than age 40 and are attending Lund University prenatal clinic; who have fathered one or more pregnancies and who stopped birth control to achieve the present pregnancy; who achieved the present pregnancy in less than 12 months of unprotected intercourse. Infertile men: men referred to the Scandian Andrology Centre whose infertility is unexplained, whose partners are younger than age 40 and who have had regular sexual intercourse without contraception for at least 12 months without achieving a pregnancy. All participants will have the following tests and procedures: Complete a questionnaire providing information about their reproductive and medical history and recent dietary history; Provide blood samples for analysis of red cell folate, plasma folate, plasma homocysteine, plasma B12, and for genetic evaluation; Provide a semen sample for routine analysis, including volume, sperm concentration, sperm motility, and sperm morphology. In addition, infertile men will undergo a physical examination and review of their medical records.

The purpose of this investigational study is to find out what hormones are present in healthy male testicles using fine needle aspiration.

Testes of men with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) are imaged using MRI to find potential differences depending on the outcome, ie. sperm recovery in consequent microdissection testicular sperm extraction (MD-TESE).

This study aims to eventually assess the usefulness of thermotaxis for sperm selection in routine clinical practice.

Semen analysis is the cornerstone for the valuation of the male partner in the infertile couples. This test has been standardized throughout the world through the World Health Organization (WHO) since the1970s by producing, editing, updating, and disseminating a semen analysis manual and guidelines.

Sperm DNA integrity will be measured via the Toluidine Blue Assay (TBA) for patients undergoing In Vitro Fertilization (IVF); the study will determine correlations, if any, between IVF success and sperm DNA integrity.