The harm of mumps and infertility

Mumps is a disease that is more serious for men. It is especially easy to get mumps when they are young, and repeated attacks are particularly likely to cause azoospermia and infertility when they grow up. For men, the harm is more serious, so when children, especially boys, get mumps, parents must pay attention in time and take the children for follow-up examinations. The following is a detailed introduction to the harm of mumps and azoospermia, and many men can have a comprehensive understanding of it.

One of the characteristics of mumps virus is that it not only affects the glands, but also often acts on the nervous tissue, pancreas, and especially has a considerable "affinity" for the testicles. Orchitis that occurs after puberty can cause irreparable damage to the epithelial cells and interstitial cells of the testicular seminiferous tubules by the virus, and in severe cases can cause testicular atrophy. In addition, bilateral mumps orchitis in adult men can also cause hypogonadism, and sometimes cause azoospermia or a severe decrease in sperm count, less than 4 million/m1.

The diagnosis of orchitis is not difficult to establish, such as testicular pain and discomfort, very sensitive and severe tenderness, plus unilateral or bilateral testicular swelling, symptoms and signs are relatively clear, of course, before or at the same time as the testicular swelling and pain, there are often symptoms and signs of mumps. Sometimes only one side has signs, but this does not mean that the contralateral testis is not affected, and degenerative changes can still be seen in both testes. When the testicles are found to be uneven in texture and irregular in shape during physical examination, it often indicates the presence of scars. About half of patients with bilateral orchitis have mild testicular atrophy.

If atrophy occurs on one side of the testicle, it will have less impact on fertility and will not affect sexual life after marriage; if both testicles are affected, it is likely to lead to infertility. Some people report that only 5% of patients are still fertile. However, when the testicle size does not decrease significantly, the testicular seminiferous tubules may still atrophy, which seriously affects fertility. When testicular atrophy is severe, the volume can be reduced to about 5 ml. When the testicular cell structure is destroyed and fibrotic, not only the spermatogenic epithelial cells, but also the interstitial cells will be affected. In severe cases, testicular biopsy can confirm that there is only a syndrome of supporting cells, that is, there are no spermatogenic cells in the patient's seminiferous tubules. There is no hope of restoring the fertility of such patients, but some patients are still blindly seeking medical treatment everywhere, wasting a lot of time, energy and medicine. Some patients still have progressive fibrosis in their testicles a few years after the disease. Even if the patient still has sperm production and the count may be within the normal range, the sperm motility is often only about 30%, and the movement speed is also significantly reduced.

After getting mumps, it is particularly easy to induce orchitis. Mumps and orchitis are serious harms to male testicles. Severe cases will harm male oligospermia and affect fertility. Therefore, many patients who have often had mumps in the past have mumps-related azoospermia. Therefore, patients with mumps must be treated as soon as possible to avoid serious consequences of infertility.