[Semen characteristics and fertility (author's transl)].

The semen characteristics of 215 fertile men (F = fathers requesting vasectomy) and of 409 infertile men (I) have been analysed under strictly identical conditions. The mean values for volume, sperm concentration, and the percentages of motile, vital and morphologically normal spermatozoa were greater in group F than in I. Seminal variations were much greater in cases of testicular lesions (cryptorchidism, hypotrophy) than in varicocele, although there remains a difference between F and I even after exclusion of all clinical lesions suggesting a role for other factors in the origin of much cases of infertility. Other than in cases of azoospermia, there is no difference in the function of the accessory glands detectable by the assay of seminal biochemical markers: fructose (seminal vesicles) acid phosphatase and citrate (prostate); only L-carnitine (epididymal marker) is elevated in the fertile men, however this difference is only a reflection of the observed difference in sperm concentration in combination with the close correlation between sperm concentration and L-carnitine values.