you know why andrology is seldom? but opposite , you can find gynecology at everywhere .?

Yes, that's a good observation and a really pertinent question that many ask. And should.

Etymologically, both words, gynecology and andrology, have analogous roots derived from the Greek and Latin languages, wherein the first part of each means `female' and `male' respectively, and the second part, logos, means science or discourse. This is usually how most specialities in medical science are named.

Using this nomenclatural model, which is based on logical concatenation, gynaecology (gynecology) emerged as the branch of medical science that addresses matters of the female reproductive system in health and disease. This branch of medicine is well-known to most, and is unambiguous in its connotations.

By the same deductive logic, `andrology' ought to have emerged as the equally well-known branch of medical science that dealt with the health and health disorders of the male sexual and reproductive system.

However, this never happened. The reasons for this are as follows:

1) In early medical science, much before the major medical (subject) branches sprouted specialties and sub-specialties, male sexual function was usually addressed by quacks, and later by psychologists and psychiatrists. Regardless of who the expert was, all sexual problems were thought to be `all in the mind'. Those days, medical science did not know, or even try to know, that sexual health was both: physical health and psychological health. Even today, many live in ignorance of this fact.

2) The quacks, psychologists and psychiatrists jumped in to claim sexual health (including male sexual health - andrology) as their subject, and the urologists didn't show too much interest or care either. Till date, andrology languishes as the smallest sub-specialty within urology.

Meantime, a bunch of scientists and reproductive biologists, who examined spermatozoa (sperms) under the microscope in veterinary and human laboratories for various applications and purposes, began to call themselves `andrologists' ! Even though such nomenclature is quite analogous to calling a laboratory scientist who examines menstrual fluid or vaginal discharge under a laboratory microscope, a `gynecologist', this misnomer endures !

It is interesting to note that these people still continue to do so (viz. call themselves `andrologists'), and that these laboratory andrologists are better known in many parts of the world than their clinical andrologist counterparts who actually work hands on with male sexual dysfunctions all day.

In my opinion, these laboratory workers should be disallowed to use this title for themselves. Clearly, it is a misleading misnomer. Like calling a laboratory technician who peers at blood smears in pathology labs a hematologist ! Wouldn't `spermatologist' or `semenologist' be more germane ?

Time to change, don't you think ?!

Dr. Sudhakar Krishnamurti
Andrologist, Microsurgeon & Sexual Health Consultant
Andromeda Andrology Center
Hyderabad, India

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