An overview of the causes and symptoms of male infertility from the perspective of traditional Persian medicine

Despite significant medical advances, infertility, particularly male infertility remains a health care problem. Review of this issue from a perspective other than conventional medicine may shed light on the remaining unknown causes of infertility. The aim of this study was to investigate the causes and symptoms of male infertility in the traditional Iranian medical texts.
The causes of male infertility were gathered from reliable sources of Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM), including Canon of Medicine, Zakhireye Kharazmshahi, Sharhe asbab va Alamat, Tebb-e-Akbari, Moalejat-e-Aghili, and Eksir-e-Aazam. Then in order to find recent related evidence for male infertility we performed an extensive search in scientific databases such as Medline, Scopus, and Google Scholar.
Different causes, symptoms, and treatments for male infertility have been suggested by Iranian physicians. These causes can be categorized into five classes of general disorders, reproductive system disorders, causes outside the reproductive organs including nerves system, digestive system and renal causes, mental and behavioral disorders, and unknown causes. In addition to structural problems, reproductive system disorders can be due to dysfunction, which is presented in the form of hot, cold, wet, or dry reproductive system dystemperament with different semen indexes.
Different causes with different treatments are discussed for male infertility in TPM sources. Attention to this diagnostic approach may lead to new research ideas in the field of male infertility.