Beside cytotoxic drugs, other drugs can impact men's fertility through various mechanisms. Via the modification of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis hormones or by non-hormonal mechanisms, drugs may directly and indirectly induce sexual dysfunction and spermatogenesis impairment and alteration of epididymal maturation. This systematic literature review summarizes existing data about the negative impact and associations of pharmacological treatments on male fertility (excluding cytotoxic drugs), with a view to making these data more readily available for medical staff. In most cases, these effects on spermatogenesis/sperm maturation/sexual function are reversible after the discontinuation of the drug. When a reprotoxic treatment cannot be stopped and/or when the impact on semen parameters/sperm DNA is potentially irreversible (Sulfasalazine Azathioprine, Mycophenolate mofetil and Methotrexate), the cryopreservation of spermatozoa before treatment must be proposed. Deleterious impacts on fertility of drugs with very good or good level of evidence (Testosterone, Sulfasalazine, Anabolic steroids, Cyproterone acetate, Opioids, Tramadol, GhRH analogues and Sartan) are developed.
Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men. Several studies have reported an alteration in semen quality in nonseminoma tumors, but this result has not been confirmed in all of the published data. We performed a retrospective study in a population of 1158 men with testicular cancer who banked sperm between 1999 and 2003 in 11 French Centre d'Etude et de Conservation des Oeufs et du Sperme humain laboratories. Our study evaluated prefreeze and postthaw sperm parameters according to patient medical history, tumor histological type, and disease stage. Pure seminomas were found in 48% of our population. Testicular cancer was generally diagnosed at stage I. In cases of a history of unilateral cryptorchidism, testicular cancer occurred preferentially in the maldescended testis. Semen samples were preferentially collected after orchiectomy. The sperm concentration and total sperm number were significantly lower before orchiectomy in seminomas compared with nonseminoma tumors (P , .001). After orchiectomy, these parameters decreased for nonseminoma tumors and did not vary for seminomas. Semen parameters were more severely impaired for stage III tumors, and when patients had a history of cryptorchidism or when they were less than 20 years of age. Azoospermia was more frequently observed before than after orchiectomy. In this study, we determined that sperm cryobanking should preferentially be performed before orchiectomy and that testicular sperm extraction concurrent with orchiectomy should be used in severe spermatogenesis impairment. Our study highlights that seminomas alter sperm production more significantly than nonseminoma tumors and seem to preferentially impair spermatogenesis in tumor-bearing testes.
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