The magazine of the european research area European Commission Copenhagen, a missed chance?

  www.inserm.fr 

… and that 

of infertile men  

Infertile men are significantly 

less healthy than the fertile 

population, if we are to believe 

an article published in December 

2009 in the journal of the Euro-

pean Association of Urology. 

The article is based on the findings 

of a prospective study conducted 

between September 2006 and 

2007 at the University of Milan (IT), 

by urologist Dr Andrea Salonia’s 

team, of 344 men aged 18 to 

60 years suffering from infertility. 

Comparison with a control group 

of 293 fertile men of analogous 

age shows that less fertile men 

have a significantly higher level 

of comorbidity on the Charlson 

comorbidity scale, which lists 

all the comorbid (i.e., affecting 

the patient simultaneously) 

pathologies of aged persons.

This means that, in addition 

to infertility, these patients 

have other health problems in 

greater proportions than the 

fertile population. Given the 

limited size of the sample, it is 

still too early to draw general 

conclusions, and larger scale 

studies will be needed to confirm 

these results.