Association of serum 25 (OH) D levels with semen parameters and sex hormones in infertility men

Abstract

Objective To investigate the correlation between serum 25(OH)D level and semen parameters and sex hormones in infertile males. Methods 145 infertile men were collected from the Assisted Reproductive Centre of the First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, and their serum levels of 25(OH)D, semen analysis parameters, serum levels of hormone were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into three groups according to the level of 25(OH)D with 36 cases in deficiency group (25(OH)D<25 mmol/L), 66 cases in insufficiency group (25 mmol/L ≤25(OH) D<50 mmol/L) and 43 cases in normal group (50 mmol/L≤25(OH)D). Results There were significant differences in BMI, sperm concentration, sperm motility, progesterone(P) level, and testosterone(T) levels among the 3 groups (F=3.725, P=0.026; F=15.974, P<0.001; F=7.367, P=0.001; F=22.872, P<0.001 and F=5.187, P=0.007, respectively). Significant variables were adjusted in ordinal logistic regression model using serum 25(OH)D as dependent variable. We observed a positive correlation between serum 25(OH)D level and sperm motility, sperm density, P level (OR=1.304, P<0.001, OR=1.042, P<0.001, OR=3.904, P<0.001). Conclusions The serum 25(OH)D levels were positively correlated with sperm motility, sperm concentration and P level in infertile males, which indicated that 25(OH)D might affect semen quality of this population. Key words: Vitamin D; Male infertility; Sex hormone; Semen parameters