Abstract
Background
There were controversial results between obesity-associated markers and semen quality.
Methods
In this study, we investigated the correlations between age, obesity-associated markers including body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and waist circumference (WC), the combination of age and obesity-associated markers, semen parameters and serum reproductive hormone levels in 1,231 infertile men.
Results
The results showed that BMI, WC, WHR and WHtR were positively related to age, and there were also positive relations between BMI, WHR, WC and WHtR and between sperm concentration (SC), total sperm count (TSC), PR, sperm motility and percent of normal sperm morphology (NSM). However, age, each of obesity-associated markers, and the combination of obesity-associated markers and age were unrelated to any of semen parameters including total normal-progressively motile sperm count (TNPMS). Age, BMI, WHR, WC and WHtR were negatively related to serum testosterone and SHBG levels. However, only serum LH and FSH levels were negatively related to sperm concentration, NSM and sperm motility.
Conclusions
Although age and obesity have significant impacts on reproductive hormones such as testosterone, SHBG and estradiol, semen parameters related to FSH and LH could not be influenced, indicating that obesity-associated markers could not predict male semen quality.
Keywords: Obesity, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), semen parameter, reproductive hormone