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Tenovus Institute for Cancer Research, Welsh National School of Medicine. The Heath, Cardiff, CF4 4XX and *41 Rodney Street, Liverpool, LI 9EN

(Received 1 July 1977)

Although our knowledge of spermatogenesis is good (see Steinberger & Steinberger, 1975), we have yet to appreciate fully the integrated hormonal requirements of this process (see Courot, 1976). Infertility in men has proved an obstinate condition to treat, although gonadotrophin and androgen therapy have achieved some success. Prolactin remains something of an enigma in men although there is now considerable evidence that it can have profound action both on the testis and on the accessory sex glands of experimental animals.

It was decided to measure routinely the concentrations of testosterone and prolactin in the plasma of men attending an infertility clinic, for comparison with fertile men requesting vasectomy. The 'infertile' men (sperm count range/ml excluding azoospermic men was 5 x 10³–305 x 10⁶; median