(209) Investigating if Polygamy is Associated with Higher Levels of Testosterone or Not

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Introduction: in middle east countries polygamy is legal and common. While the majority of married men have only one wife, some of them have more than one wife. Objective Objectives: Its a common hypothesis among public that a man who has more than one wife at a time is hypersexual and has higher levels of testosterone. We ran this study to check if this hypothesis is true or not. Methods We prospectively enrolled men who attended the andrology clinic for different reasons in this study in one-year duration. Exclusion criteria were: being single, age >45, body mass index (BMI) >30 or <20, diabetics, dyslipidaemia, pituitary dysfunction, thyroid dysfunction, cryptorchidism, history of primary infertility or azoospermia and testosterone supplementation. All patients had thorough medical history and marital status. Number of children of each participant was also recorded. All patients had blood sample for total testosterone between 9–11 am. Statistical analysis was performed using the T- Student test. Serum testosterone was compared in a multivariate analysis to martial history and number of children. Results 214 men were included in this analysis. The mean age was 28(19–45).98 patients had one wife (46%),43 had two wives (20%),37 had 3 wives (17.2%), and 36 had 4 wives (16.8%) at the time of presentation. The average number of children for each man was 4(1–17). The mean serum total testosterone was 4.6 ng/ml (3.2–7.6). The number of children was correlated with the number of wives (r=0.522, P<0.01). The number of children was negatively correlated with the testosterone level (r=-0.170, P<0.05). The number of wives was negatively correlated with the testosterone level (r=-0.180, P<0.01), see table 1.Once age has been controlled for, the correlation disappeard, see table 2. Conclusions Increasing numbers of both wives and children are not associated with higher levels of testosterone. Disclosure No.