This contemporary account of male fertility provides a much-needed bridge between those seeking to understand the subject from an evolutionary and biological perspective, and those with clinical responsibility for the investigation and treatment of male infertility. Accordingly, the first half of the book deals with evolutionary aspects of male reproduction and sperm competition, sperm production and delivery in man and other animals, spermatogenesis and epididymal function, sperm transport in the female tract, and the apparent decline in human sperm count. The second part of the book puts greater emphasis on clinical problems and opens with a discussion of ICSI, including its value and limitations. This is followed by a review of modern developments in the genetics of male infertility and proceeds to a further chapter on the role of surgical procedures in the treatment of male infertility. The contributors provide a critical review of semen analysis and a full description of the molecular techniques now being used in preimplantation diagnosis and in the study of mitochondrial inheritance. This volume, written by an international team of authors, illustrates the breadth of vision needed to tackle the problem of male infertility.

Infertility is a problem for the couple and evaluation of the couple is preferable in a clinic where both males and females may be seen together. The contribution to care by the urologist and the gynaecologist each with an interest in infertility is different but complementary. My appreciation of this was sharpened between 1976 and 1985 during my association with the World Health Organization's Spe cial Programme of Research Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction at the meetings of the Steering Committee of its Task Force on Infertility. The deliberations of this group were aimed at developing a protocol for investigation of the infertile couple and it became apparent to me as a gynaecologist how important is the precise characterization of the male partner's role to the formulation of the management plan for the infertile couple. To improve the quality of our evaluation of the male partner our techni cal staff were trained in the semen methodology of the laboratory of Dr F Com haire of Ghent and we were joined by Dr CLR Barratt, male reproductive biologist. It seemed appropriate to share our enthusiasm for clinical andrology, so after discussion with Dr Comhaire and Professor T Glover, an eminent male reproductive biologist, then of Brisbane, who planned a sabbatical to his native was arranged for 1 and 2 May 1986. Professor Glover en Yorkshire, a meeting of the meeting."