Who is responsible for couple infertility: A clinic-based survey in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)

This study was carried out to describe the male or female original causes of infertility among couples and the semen quality among men attending fertility clinics. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with a retrospective data collection from 2003 to 2012. From 14 to 18th January, 6 982 patients were included and analyzed 6642 patients’ data from 15 private and public medical centres in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The mean age was 36.4 (95% CI: 35.3, 37.6), 30.0 (95% CI: 29.6, 30.4) and 29.6 (95% CI: 29.4, 29.8) for men, infertile and fertile women, respectively. The origin of the infertility was related to female or male factor in 25.1 and 7.7% of the cases, respectively while unexplained infertility represented 62.5% of the cases. The trend of the male infertility had a slight but steady increase over the last years of the study. Regarding semen quality, the male-factor infertility was more associated with the sperm quality (morphology, motility and vitality) than the spermatozoa count or the volume. Our findings tended to confirm that male infertility is increasing. Prospective studies are needed to investigate the specificities of infertility in Burkina Faso as well as the different partners’ contribution to this. Key words: Infertility, semen quality, prevalence, sub-Sahara Africa, Burkina Faso.