 [ Symptoms ] what are some common causes of male infertility [ Disease ] the “male factor” contributes to infertility around half the time and about one third of the time it is the main cause of infertility most often the problem lies in the process of either making or moving the sperm any of the following can cause a man to have a low sperm count or abnormal sperm varicocele — an abnormal collection of bulging veins above the testicle they are the most common cause of correctable male infertility accounting for 38 of cases undescended testicle infections in the testicle orchitis the prostate prostatitis or elsewhere in the body that causes a fever chemotherapy for cancer medicines such as anabolic steroids or anti seizure medicines genetic abnormalities hormone problems in some cases these problems can be reversed but other times they can not an evaluation by a physician is the only way to sort it out sometimes making sperm is not the problem the problem is getting the sperm where they need to go men with this type of male infertility have normal sperm in the testicles but the sperm in the semen are either abnormal very low in number or not there at all causes of this kind of infertility include retrograde ejaculation in this condition semen ejaculates backwards into the bladder instead of out the penis usually previous surgery is the cause absence of the main sperm pipeline known as the vas deferens this condition is a genetic problem obstruction an obstruction can occur anywhere in the plumbing between the testicles and the penis anti sperm antibodies antibodies can abnormally attack a man is own sperm on their way to the egg up to 25 of infertile men have idiopathic infertility that means they have abnormal or low sperm counts for no identifiable reason