The Evaluation and Treatment of Male Infertility

Abstract

As the perpetuation of the species is primarily dependent upon its reproductive ability it is no wonder that the problem of sterile wedlock is one which has concerned mankind from time immemorial. Many references to the recognition and treatment of infertility may be found even in the earliest writings of man, and from those early times until the present there has been an unending quest for the answer to this problem, the path of which has led through many strange fields ranging from the divine to the witches brew. This is evidenced by the vast number of heathen, mythological, and other fabulous deities and powers in which the faculty of being able to restore fertility has been invested by credulous mankind. In China to-day for example statues of the goddess of fertility, Kwan Yen are to be seen with their kneeling stones almost worn away by the knees of countless thousands of barren women who. by supplication to this deity, believed that the blessing of fecundity would be bestowed upon them. Likewise the folklore of virtually every nation on earth contains many and varied, and often weird rites and ceremonies to say nothing of extraordinary recipes and formulae, all of which are believed capable of exorcizing the evil spirit of sterility.