Health information

QUESTION: Could you please be so kind as to explain male sterility due to
mumps contracted during puberty? I have been married 6 years and I haven’t
been able to get pregnant
How does this illness affect the male’s
reproductive system, and is there any cure for it?

ANSWER: Mumps is a disease that is found worldwide, and by fifteen years of
age more than 90 percent of people living in urban areas have blood tests that
reveal that they have been exposed to the disease
It most often occurs in
children between the ages of five to nine years, but those statistics are
changing due to the use of a mumps vaccine that was first available for use in
1967
The cause of the infection is a virus that is passed through contact
with secretions from an infected individual’s nose, mouth and throat
About
one third of the time the disease proceeds with no symptoms at all except for
a slight fever and malaise
However the most noticeable feature of the full
blown attack is swelling of the parotid gland located in the cheek, as well as
other salivary glands
It may also affect the testicles of men past puberty
in from 10 to 20 percent of the cases
It then is called “orchitis” or
inflammation of the testicles
It may touch one or both sides, and according
to some articles in the literature may rarely affect sterility, or according
to other experts produce sterility in as many as half the cases
The viral
infection attacks the sperm producing cells and destroys them, leaving the
testicle atrophied or shrunken
Fortunately the cells which produce the
masculine hormone are not affected, and so levels of male hormone remain
normal throughout life
Once the damage has been done, there is no treatment
available to regenerate the sperm producing cells
When the problem is
sterility, a complete work up must be performed to determine the number and
activity of sperm that may be present, and to evaluate the potential for
fertilization
If the findings indicate that this might occur, you too, must
be examined for possible problems that are standing in the way of pregnancy,
which should then be treated and corrected as well
Although a history of
mumps is important in fertility problems, it must not be considered the
culprit until all the possibilities have been examined.

The material contained here is “FOR INFORMATION ONLY” and should not replace
the counsel and advice of your personal physician
Promptly consulting your
doctor is the best path to a quick and successful resolution of any medical
problem.

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