Does infertility always occur in men after mumps (mumps) and what to do?

Male infertility often turns into a real tragedy for couples who dream of the birth of a baby. Problems with fertility in men can lead a variety of diseases, among which there is mumps. This article will tell about whether male infertility always occurs after parotitis, and what to do in such a situation.

Unfortunately, mumps and male infertility are quite often closely related. Mumps is an infectious pathology that predominantly affects boys. Girls are sick about one and a half times less than boys.

From a medical point of view, it is more correct to call mumps mumps. This is a viral pathology that is transmitted from a sick child to a healthy one. The spread of mumps in the children's team, as a rule, occurs rapidly.

Doctors include parotitis to the so-called children's infections. The incidence is higher among toddlers of preschool and school age. At older ages, the number of cases of mumps infection is usually reduced. This is due to the fact that most schoolchildren already have immunized against this disease. In adulthood, the disease is extremely rare.

The name of the disease "mumps" is quite firmly established in the people. The fact is that during the acute period of the disease, the face of the sick child is severely swollen. Involved in the inflammatory process parotid salivary glands increase in size and swell, which gives the face a characteristic look.

When parotitis affects mainly glandular organs. So, salivary and sex glands are usually involved in the infectious process. Also, a viral infection can affect the pancreas.

The danger of the disease lies in the fact that after its acute period, the ill child may develop extremely unfavorable complications. In some cases, they appear in the first few years from the moment of illness, and sometimes they may develop after a rather long time. Some of these insidious complications can appear only in adulthood, when a man even forgets that he had mumps in childhood.

One of the possible long-term complications that develop after suffering a mumps is the development of orchitis. In this case, viruses damage the tissue of the testicles - the main male sex glands. In this situation, the functioning of the organs responsible for reproduction may be impaired. And this may eventually contribute to the development of male infertility.

It should be noted that the severity of adverse symptoms with orchitis may be different. So, doctors believe that the severity of orchitis can depend on how hard a particular person had mumps in childhood. It is believed that in moderate and severe mumps complications associated with disruption of the testicles, develop in more than half the cases.

It often happens that orchitis is diagnosed only many years after the transferred mumps.The complexity of the diagnosis lies in the fact that the inflammation of the testicles is not always combined with the inflammation of the parotid salivary glands. Such an atypical clinical course of the disease can lead to the fact that the diagnosis will be made out of time.

Orchitis, as a complication of mumps, can develop even after a few days from the onset of the first adverse symptoms of the disease. Typically, clinical signs in such a situation appear a week after the end of the incubation period.

In acute orchitis, which is caused by viral parotiditis, the child's temperature rises strongly. In practice, there are cases when the body temperature in sick children increases to 39-39.5 degrees. Against the background of such a high fever, when the child has orchitis, a sharp pain in the scrotum occurs. Pain syndrome is usually moderate or fairly intense. The pain may radiate (spread) to the lower abdomen, as well as to the hips.

The inflamed testicle grows in size and reddens. The more pronounced the inflammatory process, the more pronounced the adverse symptoms. Fever, which occurs in acute viral orchitis, can persist for 7–8 days. Then the body temperature gradually returns to normal. At the same time, the child has reduced inflammation in the testicles.

Finally, the pain syndrome in the scrotum usually disappears by 10-12 days from the moment of its appearance. The baby starts to feel much better. However, the improvement of the general state only indicates the termination of the acute period of the disease. After a few months or years, the affected child may develop atrophy of testicular tissue. This situation most often develops if the treatment of acute orchitis was performed incorrectly.

Orchitis, unfortunately, is not the only complication that can develop during viral parotiditis. In about 20% of cases, the inflammatory process also occurs in the appendages of the inflamed testicle. In this case, the child develops a very dangerous pathology - epididymitis. Its danger lies in the fact that it can contribute to the formation of various disorders of spermatogenesis - the biological process of the formation of male germ cells (spermatozoa). In this case, the man has a rather high risk of developing male infertility.

Mumps is a difficult pathology for boys. Viruses that cause this disease can have a damaging effect on many male genital organs. So, another possible complication of parotitis is prostatitis - inflammation of the tissues of the prostate gland. In this case, spermatogenesis can also be disturbed, which will lead to a significant reduction in the ability to conceive naturally.

Priapism is a pathology in which a painful erection develops that is not associated with natural arousal. This pathological condition is one of the complications of mumps. Priapism is treated by a urologist or andrologist.

It should be noted that not all men who have had mumps in childhood develop problems with natural conception. If the treatment they were prescribed in childhood to eliminate the adverse symptoms of the infection was chosen correctly and effectively, then they do not develop any long-term effects associated with impaired spermatogenesis.

If during the mumps the testicles were involved in the inflammatory process with the development of acute orchitis and other pathologies of the male genital organs, then the likelihood of further development of male infertility increases significantly. So, it is believed that problems with natural conception can develop in 20% of cases in men who have suffered unilateral orchitis caused by mumps. If orchitis was two-sided, then the probability of developing male infertility increases and is already 70%.

It is believed that the older a child is sick, the higher the likelihood of long-term complications in the future. If an unvaccinated adult male falls ill, then in this case the prognosis for the development of complications is, unfortunately, extremely unfavorable.

It is worth noting that, despite the availability of modern methods of diagnosis and treatment, mumps and today remains a very serious problem that affects the development of infertility in men. Responses of representatives of the stronger sex, who are faced with this problem, also confirm this. It is extremely difficult for doctors to treat male infertility, which has developed as a result of parotitis orchitis suffered in childhood.

Pig is much easier to prevent than to treat. In Russia, there is a national vaccination schedule, which includes mandatory vaccination of babies from mumps. Prevention of this dangerous infection is much easier than selecting an adequate treatment regimen. Practically all doctors adhere to this postulate.

If for some reason the child was not vaccinated from the mumps and she fell ill, then in this case the treatment of the disease is only with the doctor.

If a boy becomes sick with a parotitis, then it should be shown to the urologist. Only a specialist can identify dangerous clinical signs of orchitis and other pathologies of the male genital organs. A clinical examination as well as a number of ancillary tests and research help the doctor in this.

For the diagnosis of inflammation of the testicles, an ultrasound of the scrotum is prescribed. During the study, the doctor assesses the condition of the testicular tissue and the presence of an inflammatory process in them, and also excludes complications that may develop in otitis media.

For men who have experienced parotitis in childhood and have had difficulty conceiving a child, doctors prescribe a mandatory examination of sperm - spermogram. This simple but informative analysis provides information on how spermatogenesis proceeds. The spermogram shows the "quality" of sperm. With this simple test, doctors can assess how mobile and active sperm are to make natural conception.

In some cases, to assess the state of the tissue of the testicles after orchitis in childhood, doctors prescribe a histological examination. Biological material for the examination in this case is taken during puncture of the testicles. Such a study is already prescribed, as a rule, in adulthood.

After determining the nature and extent of functional impairment, doctors determine the further tactics of therapy.

For information on what complications can occur with mumps, see the following video.