ABSTRACT
The reasons for human infertility are manifold and still not completely understood. However, there is increasing evidence that in a substantial percentage of affected couples genetic abnormalities cause or contribute to the fertility problem, which is particularly true for male factor infertility (Lilford et al. 1994). Sex chromosomal and balanced autosomal chromosome aberrations, congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens, and microdeletions in the long arm of the Y chromosome (Simoni et al. 1997) are among the best known examples. The latter entity will be discussed here to illustrate how the new in vitro fertilisation (TVF) methods can contribute to the propagation of infertility genes in the next generation and in which way this might affect our outlook on assisted human reproduction.
