17-Hydroxyandrogens and oestrogens in the plasma of normal and infertile men.

Abstract

Androgens, particularly testosterone, have long been held to be controlling factors in spermatogenesis (Steinberger & Ducket, 1967). Oestrogens have been shown to influence the output of pituitary gonadotrophins and thus cause Leydig cell atrophy. They also affect germinal cells in the seminiferous tubules directly (de la Balze et al., 1962). In the present study, we have attempted to correlate the plasma concentrations of 17-hydroxyandrogens (17-OHA) and oestradiol-17 \g=b\with the sperm counts and testicular histology of 134 men. All the men were referred to the infertility clinic with a history of at least 2 years of childless marriage during which regular intercourse, without contraception, had taken place. On the patient's initial visit to the clinic, 10 ml peripheral venous blood were withdrawn for steroid assays. The patients were instructed to collect semen samples by coitus interruptus in the morning after 3 days of abstinence from intercourse. The semen samples were delivered by the patient to the Urology Department within 1 hr of collection. When there were more than 60 \m=x l06 spermatozoa/ml which had >95% normal morphology and > 50% motility 2 hr after collection, the man was regarded as normal and no further investigations were carried out. Of the