Male genital damage in COVID-19 patients: Are available data relevant?

• Main Authors: Youssef Kharbach, Abdelhak Khallouk
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-07-01
• Series: Asian Journal of Urology
• Subjects: Coronavirus disease 2019; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Male genital system; Testis; Male infertility
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214388220300448

Over the past few weeks, we have observed increasing concern about the possible impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 virus) on male fertility. Precise mechanisms of male reproductive damages are still unclear, but it seems that high temperature resulting from persistent fever and triggering a secondary autoimmune response leading to an autoimmune orchitis are the most likely involved mechanisms. Also, angiotensin conversion enzyme 2 (ACE2) plays a highly important role in cellular entry for SARS-CoV-2 and male genital system presents high ACE2 expression. All these preliminary findings suggest that COVID-19 could impact men's reproductive health. Thus, we examined available data including published and unpublished articles to assess the potential risk of COVID-19 in particular on the male reproductive system.