Table 1.

Clinical trials available in the literature evaluating the efficacy of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) in male idiopathic infertility. Studies are classified considering the study design and the therapeutic dosage applied.

FSH Doses	Treatment Duration	FSH Total Amount	Authors	FSH Doses	Treatment Duration	FSH Total Amount	Authors
RCT
Recombinant FSH				Urinary-derived FSH
50 IU on alternate days	12 weeks	2250 IU	Foresta et al. (2002) [128]	50 IU on alternate days	12 weeks	2250 IU	Ding et al. (2015) [129]
100 IU on alternate days	12 weeks	4500 IU	Foresta et al. (2002), Foresta et al. (2005) [128,130]	100 IU on alternate days	12 weeks	4500 IU	Ding et al. (2015) [129]
		6750 IU	Colacurci et al. (2012) [131]
150 IU on alternate days	12 weeks	6750 IU	Simoni et al. (2016), Foresta et al. (2009) [105,132]	75 IU daily (150 IU on alternate days)	Not reported	Not reported	Ben-Rafael et al. (2000), Matorras et al. (1997) [133,134]
		5400 IU	Selice et al. (2011) [135]		13 weeks	6825 IU	Knuth et al. (1987)*§ [136]
150 IU daily (300 IU on alternate days)	12 weeks	12600 IU	Kamischke et al. (1998)§ [137]	200 IU on alternate days	12 weeks	9000 IU	Ding et al. (2015) [129]
	16 weeks	18000 IU	Paradisi et al. (2006)§ [138]	150 IU daily (300 IU on alternate days)	12 weeks	12600 IU	Ding et al. (2015), Ben-Rafael et al. (2000) [129,133]
Non randomized, retrospective trials
Recombinant FSH				Urinary-derived FSH
150 IU on alternate days	12 weeks	5400 IU	Caroppo et al. (2003) [139]	75IU on alternate days	12 weeks	3375 IU	Foresta et al. (2000) [140]
				75 IU daily	12 weeks	6300 IU	Ashkenazi et al. (1999) [141]
					4 weeks	2100 IU	Bartoov et al. (1994) [142]
				150 IU daily	12 weeks	12600 IU	Baccetti et al. (2004) [143]

FSH: follicle-stimulating hormone; RCT: randomized controlled clinical trial. * This study applied human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) plus human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG). § In these studies, the control group was treated with placebos in a double-blind study design.