Do Mumps Orchitis Cause Infertility?

An answer to a question if mumps cause infertility is not a very simple, but a straight answer would be: not necessarily. First, let's explain what mumps is. Mumps is usually considered a mild and uncommon disease of early childhood, but the problem is mumps these days is undergoing a resurgence, which is especially true for particularly among young adults in their late twenties. Mumps is a highly infectious acute disease caused by infection with an RNA virus. Most common mumps symptoms include fever and swelling and tenderness of one or more salivary glands. The glad that is most common affected when having mumps infection is the Parotid gland, which is situated just in front of the ear, on the outer aspect of the cheek overlying the upper jaw bone. The older the patient, the more likely it is that mumps disease will turn out to be more severe and that it will cause complications in various organs, and not just potentially cause infertility.

In recent years doctors observe that the rates of mumps infections have rose. More and more patients develop complications such as Orchitis (inflamed testes), Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) and Meningitis (infection of the coverings of the brain and spinal cord. Since we cover fertility and infertility related topics we shall discus Mumps Orchitis in this article.

Inflamed testes or Mumps Orchitis occur in about 20% of patients who are infected with mumps virus. At this point we must bring out that permanent infertility is very rare, but it is still possible. Most often complications connected to Mumps Orchitis include damage to the sperm producing cells of the testis. Lower sperm count is usually present for a shorter period of time; in mild cases of Mumps Orchitis approximately six months to one year. Vaccination against mumps is possible (two doses are given three years apart), but it appears that the rise in mumps infections is back in the age group born between 1978 and 1982, most likely because they missed getting their second dose of the MMR vaccine as children.