This means that nearly 7.5 to 10 percent of all men in the reproductive age group are infertile i.e. incapable of fathering children. This, by any yardstick, is a stupendous figure but one that very few know about. This article proposes to deal exclusively with male factor infertility. It is important to note that infertility and impotence are quite different entities. Failure to discern the difference between the two is a needless cause of embarrassment to most men who stay away from andrology clinics because of the stigma that goes with the latter term.
Impotence means an inability to attain or sustain erections for satisfactory sexual intercourse.
The term has no bearing whatsoever on the fertility status of the man. It is thus possible for a totally impotent man to be potentially fertile and it will be possible to produce a pregnancy in the wife of such a man by insemination of the husband's semen. Infertility, on the other hand, means an inability to produce children. This usually results from the husband's semen being infertile or sub-fertile. Most infertile men are perfectly normal in terms of potency and have very satisfactory sexual relations with their partners.