Abstract

Background: Medical treatments are used either alone or in combination with assisted reproductive techniques for the treatment of infertile patients with hypergonadotropic hypogonadism. A wide range of treatment options such as gonadotropins, aromatase inhibitors (AIs), selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) and their combination are available as options.

Objective: The aim of this review was to evaluate treatment options for infertile men with hypergonadotropic hypogonadism.

Methods: A literature search of MEDLINE (1980-2019) was conducted using the terms ‘hypogonadism’, ‘male infertility’, ‘gonadotropins’, ‘SERMs’ and ‘AIs’. Pathologies leading to hypergonadotropic hypogonadism and treatment modalities such as gonadotropins, SERMs, AIs and surgical treatment were discussed.

Results: FSH increases spontaneous pregnancy rates but the level of evidence was proven to be low for live birth rates. AIs are valid treatment options for patients with low T/E2 ratio as they significantly increase sperm concentrations. SERMs are recommended for infertile males with a sperm concentration between 10-20 million. Varicocele was reported to increase testosterone levels of hypogonadic infertile males.

Conclusion: Medical treatment modalities such as gonadotropins, SERMs, AIs and a combination of these therapies has been showed to have some effect in improvement of fertility but is not mainstream of the treatment.

Keywords: Hypergonadotropic hypogonadism, male infertility, empirical medical treatment, gonadotropins, aromatase inhibitors, selective estrogen receptor modulators.