Journal of Postgraduate Medicine: Back issue statistics

70 infertile males with epididymal tenderness, pus cells in the semen, and/or history of urinary tract infection were studied by semen culture examination. Significant growth of Streptococcus fecalis, Escherichia coli, coagulase positive Staphylococci, Proteus valgaris, Pseudomonas pyocyanea, and beta hemolytic Strepticocci was found in 42.9% of the cases. Most of the tested strains were sensitive to ampicillin, cotrimoxazole, nitrofurantoin, erythromycin, and chloramphenicol. In a control group of 20 healthy fertile males, only an insignificnat growth of Staphylococcus albus and Streptococcus facalis was found in 65% of the samples. Nonspecific seminal tract infection can be an important cause of male infertility. These infections may affect fertility in several ways: by damaging sperm, hampering their motility, altering the chemical composition of the seminal fluid, or by producing an inflammatory structure in the tract. Seminal infection could also be the cause of the chronicity of urinary tract infection by acting as the reservoir of infection.