Impending famine and a terrifying rate of consumption of natural
resources are vital issues which have focussed public interest in the
ecologic, social and political problems of ever increasing
overpopulation in many countries of the world. As well as the vast
material and intellectual expenditure lavished on family planning and
birth control, the past decade has seen an immense research effort in
the elaboration of improved methods of fertility control, both for men
and for women. During the same period, however, research into the causes
of male fertility disorders has proceeded with equal intensity, and a
number of promising therapeutic approaches have become the subject of
clinical trials. The wish of an individual or of a couple to have
offspring is an absolute which requires no further justification, and
there can be few challenges to a physician as essential as the spouses'
predicament in a childless marriage. Only with a special knowledge of
the function, pathology and pathophysiology of the reproductive system
is he properly equipped to meet that challenge.