Male Infertility In Middle East Essay

The high rate of male infertility among Middle Eastern men is explained by several factors. Similar to Western societies, lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking alcohol and sexually transmitted diseases are closely related to male infertility in the Middle East (Inhorn 2013). Smoking is widespread and considered as a means to promote sociability in many Middle East societies so that it is hard to believe for many Middle East infertile men that smoking is a risk factor of infertility since many of male smokers were able to have children (Inforn 2013). Consanguineous marriage and cousin marriage may be the cause of male fertility due to the increasing risk of genetic defects (Inhorn 2013). However, male infertility in the Middle East is
For example, premarital sex and masturbation are believed to be the cause of their infertility as a punishment of God (Inhorn 2013). Compared with Western biological and scientific understandings of infertility, Middle East men express nonscientific explanations for their infertility. This may cause different attitudes toward third-party reproductive assistance and the ways in which people seek medical treatments for their issues. Myntti et al write that “We think it is vital for more nuanced research on sexual relationships, particularly in areas of the world where powerful stereotypes-traditional families, women's low status, oppressive religion, early marriage, high fertility, male dominance, vulnerability to divorce, need to produce sons-influence the questions we ask and the interpretations of what we see and hear. While acknowledging the complexity of people's sexual lives, our modest research suggests that it might be useful to credit women with some measure of agency, and men some measure of altruism and humanity” (2002, p.169-170). Reproductive technologies are offered to fix biological issues of infertility, but cultural and social views and understandings of infertility should be