Impact of war on fertility and infertility

Background: War account for more death and disability thanmuch major disease combined. In this context, very few studieshave, specifically, examined the effect of war on infertilitytherefore we reviewed articles that assessed the effect of war onmale and female fertility potentials.Methods: During a systematic search, a total of 183 medicalarticles related to effect of war on fertility were reviewed usingknown international medical databases.Results: Among these studies, the majority deal with maleinfertility in general and sperm parameters in particular, whilevery limited data on female infertility are available. The way inwhich war affects fertility is poorly understood. Many war-relatedexposures and traumas may put men/women at risk of infertilityduring or after a war period. In addition to multifariousreproductive toxins, other risk factors may include psychologicalstress and injury to the reproductive tract. The way war affectsmale fertility is not clear, but it is believed that psychologicalstress plays an important role. Another possible mechanism mightbe related to food deprivation that occurs during war time.Impaired male reproductive function may also be due to the useof reproductive toxicants during war. Some studies have shownthe harmful effects of Sulfur mustard as a war chemical toxinsespecially on sperms quality and male infertility and it is nowproposed that oxidative stress induced by free radicals is one the major mechanisms for direct effects of SM exposure in humanbody.Conclusion: The reviewed here demonstrates that exposure towar might be a dependent risk factor for male infertility. Forfemale infertility, there is insufficient information to make robustconclusions.

کلیدواژه ها:

War ، infertility ، sulfur mustard ، Oxidative stress