Increased Gonadotropins and prolactin are linked to infertility in males.

Pravin Kumar Gangwar

doi:10.6026/97320630016176

Abstract

Infertility has become a significant issue among married couples worldwide. The association of variations in reproductive hormones with infertility is evaluated at a tertiary care hospital in North India. A total of 220 infertile males having infertility longer than one year (cases) and 220 age-matched fertile males with confirmed paternity in past two to three years (controls) were enrolled for the study. Serum levels of LH, FSH, testosterone and PRL were measured by Roche e411 autoanalyzer using electrochemiluminescense immunoassay technique. Significant higher levels of serum hormone (mean±SD) were found in cases vs. controls; LH (9.02±7.81 vs. 5.22±1.45 mIU/ml), FSH (11.45±14.02 vs. 4.09±1.62 mIU/ml) and PRL (199.08±80.79 vs. 127.23±81.64 µIU/ml). However, the serum testosterone level was significantly low in cases associated with male infertility (4.62±2.03 vs. 6.82±2.79 ng/ml). LH, FSH and PRL levels were significantly increased in azoospermic, oligozoospermic and asthenozoospermic infertile males while FSH and PRL were significantly elevated in normozoospermic infertile group. Conversely, mean serum testosterone levels were significantly low in all infertile subgroups in comparison to fertile controls. PRL showed a significant prediction of Normozoospermia (AUC=0.836, Z=4.916, p<0.001) in ROC analysis. Data presented here is interesting, requiring further confirmation using larger samples of multiple cohorts.

Highlights

Infertility is defined as the inability of a sexually active, noncontracepting couple to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular sexual intercourse [1]
It is mainly due to abnormalities in semen parameters and quality, which are used as a measure of normal spermatogenesis [12]
The spermatogenesis depends on the proper functioning of a complex action of reproductive hormones but alterations in the level of these hormones lead to abnormal spermatogenesis and cause infertility

Summary

Background

Infertility is defined as the inability of a sexually active, noncontracepting couple to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular sexual intercourse [1]. 30 million couples in India suffer from infertility [3] Infertility affects both men and women but in developing countries, women are generally blamed. As several reports have been published on the role of different hormones in male infertility worldwide but very few of them have looked at variations in these serum hormone levels among different subtypes of male infertility in the North Indian population. Data regarding the association of different serum levels of PRL with male infertility is scanty and controversial. The present study has been undertaken to comprehensively evaluate the variations in the serum levels of LH, FSH, testosterone and PRL and determine their association with different types and subtypes of male infertility in north Indian patients.

Materials and Methods

Results

Discussion

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Findings

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