Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Andrology
Introduction
Andrology (from Greek: ἀνδρο, andro, “man”; and λόγος, logos, “knowledge”) is the medical specialty that deals with male health, particularly relating to the problems of the male reproductive system and urological problems that are unique to men. It is the counterpart to gynaecology, which deals with medical issues which are specific to women. Andrology has only been studied as a distinct specialty since the late 1960s: the first specialist journal on the subject was the German periodical Andrologie (now called Andrologia), published from 1969 onwards [1].
Men are more susceptible to heart disease than women, and tend to have a slightly shorter natural average life span. However, men are more resistant to many conditions that adversely affect women, such as osteoporosis.
Male-specific medical and surgical procedures include vasectomy and vasovasostomy (one of the vasectomy reversal procedures) as well as intervention to deal with male genitourinary disorders such as:
- balanitis
- cryptorchidism
- ectopia testis
- epispadias
- epididymitis
- frenulum breve
- hydrocele
- hypospadias
- impotence (also known more correctly as erectile dysfunction)
- infertility
- micropenis
- orchitis
- paraphimosis
- penile cancer
- penile fracture
- Peyronie’s disease
- phimosis
- prostatitis
- prostate cancer
- spermatocele
- testicular cancer
- testicular torsion
- varicocele