Abstract
Introduction: Male infertility is a public health burden and a psychological dilemma in the life of the affected man. Subjects and Methods: A total of 911 men were studied retrospectively, from 2010 to 2015. Among these, 49.7% had normal sperm count, 39.3% were oligospermic and 12.0% were azoosper-mic. Azoospermic men were withdrawn from this study solely to investigate the seminal fluid parameters and the biophysical characteristics of oligospermic men in contrast to those with normal sperm count. Age was stratified into <30, 30 - 39.9, 40 - 49.9, 50 - 59.9 and ≥60 years; body mass index was categorized into underweight (<18.5), normal (18.5 - 24.9), overweight (25.0 - 29.9) and obese (≥30) and standard semen analysis was performed. Results: The means (±sd) of age and of BMI of the 802 subjects of the study were 42.7 (±7.0) years and 26.9 (3.9) kg/m2 respectively. There was no significant difference in the age or BMI of normal and oligospermic men. A total of 453 (56.5%) had normal sperm count while 349 (43.5%) were oligospermic. Compared to normal weight men, those overweight and those obese were, respectively, 1.11 (χ2 = 0.44, P-value = 0.51, OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 0.81, 1.54) and 1.56 times (χ2 = 4.50, P-value = 0.03, OR = 1.56, 95% CI = 1.03, 2.36) more likely to be oligo-spermic. The mean of normal oval head sperms was significantly higher (t = -7.31, P-value = 0.00001) in normal men (47.8 ± 8.9) than in oligospermic men (43.0 ± 10.7). Oligospermic men were over 4 times as likely to produce progressive sperm motility of <32% (χ2 = 70.90, P-value = 0.000001, OR = 4.24, 95% CI = 2.99, 6.02) than men with normal sperm count. Multivariate regression analysis shows negative but significant correlations between age and semen volume (coef. = - 0.04, Std Err. = 0.01, t = - 4.01, P-value = 0.0001, 95% CI: - 0.06, - 0.02) and between BMI and sperm count (coef. = - 0.18, Std Err. = 0.06, t = - 3.26, P-value = 0.001, 95% CI: - 0.29, - 0.07). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that overweight and obesity are associated with oligospermia and oligospermia is significantly linked with low progressive motility, and various sperm cell defects.
Highlights
Male infertility is a public health burden and a psychological dilemma in the life of the affected man
The highest proportion (396, 49.4%) of patients were in the age group of 40 - 49 years, while the least were those aged ≥60 years (10, 1.2%)
There was no significant difference in the means of age and of Body Mass Index (BMI) of men with normal sperm and those with oligospermia (42.8 ± 7.2 years; 27.1 ± 3.7 kg/m2 respectively) (Table 1)
Summary
Male infertility is a public health burden and a psychological dilemma in the life of the affected man. 49.7% had normal sperm count, 39.3% were oligospermic and 12.0% were azoospermic. Azoospermic men were withdrawn from this study solely to investigate the seminal fluid parameters and the biophysical characteristics of oligospermic men in contrast to those with normal sperm count. There was no significant difference in the age or BMI of normal and oligospermic men. Compared to normal weight men, those overweight and those obese were, respectively, 1.11 (χ2 = 0.44, P-value = 0.51, OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 0.81, 1.54) and 1.56 times (χ2 = 4.50, P-value = 0.03, OR = 1.56, 95% CI = 1.03, 2.36) more likely to be oligospermic. Oligospermic men were over 4 times as likely to produce progressive sperm motility of
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