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. 2019 Mar 22;38(3):285–297. doi: 10.5534/wjmh.190007

Table 3. Association between medical therapy and pregnancy-related factors in men with inflammatory bowel disease.

Sexual dysfunction & infertility Adverse events of pregnancy Recommendation
Sulfasalazine • Erectile dysfunction Possible (congenital malformations) [10] Stop medication or switch to a different class of 5-ASA medications
• Oligospermia
• Poor sperm motility
• Increased forms of abnormal sperm (reversible) [41,42,43,44,45]
Mesalamine Oligospermia [46] No Discontinue only in patients with stable disease
Corticosteroids No No Recommended short-term use
Thiopurines No Controversial [51,58,59] Counsel regarding the possibility of teratogenic effects on sperm
MTX Erectile dysfunction Altered spermatogenesis Oligospermia Teratogenicity [62,63,64,65] No [10] Discontinue in patients with erectile dysfunction
Cyclosporine Decreased sperm motility and testosterone (high dose) [38,72] No [73] No recommendations
Infliximab Decreased sperm motility and abnormal sperm morphology [72] No [79] No recommendations
Other biological agents No [83] No [10,81,82,83,84] No recommendations

5-ASA: 5-aminosalicylic acid, MTX: methotrexate.