Association between male body mass index and semen parameters

Abstract

Objective: Obesity is a modern-day epidemic. Body mass index (BMI) is an easily computed surrogate marker of obesity. The incidence of obesity has paralleled the incidence of male infertility. The evidence of the association between BMI and semen parameters stays rather inconclusive. The aim of this study was to understand the association between BMI and semen parameters of male subjects evaluated at the infertility clinic. Materials and Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 410 male subjects (>18 years of age) who were referred to clinical pathology from the infertility clinic. Semen analysis for macroscopic parameters – total sperm concentration, motility, morphology, and viability, was done as per the guidelines laid by the WHO (WHO-5th edition 2010). Results: All the semen parameters showed higher aberrations in the obese group than the normal BMI group. However, on Pearson Chi-square analysis, none of these differences were found to be statistically significant (P > 0.05). On Pearson correlation analysis, none of the parameters showed a statistically significant correlation with BMI. Conclusion: The present study did not find any statistically significant differences for the commonly measured semen parameters, among the three BMI groups. We thus conclude that increased BMI or obesity has no significant impact on the semen parameters.