Aetiological factors in the production of obstructive azoospermia.

From a group of 749 infertile men, 102 (13.6%) were found to have obstructive azoospermia. An attempt is made to ascribe an aetiology to these obstructive lesions. In more than half of these patients, no cause for their obstructive lesion could be elicited. Only five gave a past history of gonorrhoea, and genital tract infection related to only eight patients. The disorder now most frequently associated with obstructive azoospermia is chronic respiratory disease. It is suggested that the aetiology of obstructive azoospermia has changed in recent years.