Infertile men are nearly three times more likely to develop testicular cancer than men who are fertile, a new study out of the U.S. suggests.

The report, put forth by Dr. Thomas Walsh and colleagues at University of California, San Francisco, points to a common source for both problems, perhaps errors in the way the body tries to repair damage to genetic material.

The infertility-cancer link has previously been discussed in Europe but the new examination of more than 22,000 California men is the largest U.S. foray into the topic so far, according to the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Men in the study were evaluated for treatment at infertility treatment centers. Those found to be infertile, "were 2.8 times more likely to develop testicular cancer relative to the general population," the researchers wrote.

But infertility is a link to testicular cancer, not the cause.

"A more plausible explanation is that a common exposure underlies infertility and testicular cancer," the study says. "Prior work ... suggests that certain severe forms of male infertility are associated with faulty DNA repair," which is also associated with the development of tumors."

Additionally, research has suggested genetics and environmental factors play strongly into both.