TABLE 2.

Studies on presence of SARS‐CoV‐2 in semen using RT‐PCR

Serial No.	Authors	Number of patients	Age (years)	Method of detection	Time between COVID‐19 diagnosis and collection of semen sample (days)	Results
1	Song et al., 2020	12 (alive) 1 (deceased)	22–38 67 (deceased)	RT‐PCR (semen) RT‐PCR + IgG and IgM for serum	Median 29.5 (IQR 22.75–32.5)	No SARS‐CoV‐2 detected in recovering patients No SARS‐CoV‐2 detected in testis of active patient (deceased)
2	Pan et al., 2020	34	37 (IQR 31–49) Range (18–55)	RT‐PCR	Median 31 (IQR 29–36)	SARS‐CoV‐2 not detected in the semen of men recovering from COVID‐19 SARS‐CoV‐2 unlikely to enter testicular cells through ACE2‐TMPRSS2 pathway in the testicular cells
3	Li et al., 2020	38	20s to 50s	RT‐PCR	Median 10.5 days 6–16 days (data available for patients with positive semen samples only)	6 /38 (15.8%) positive 4/15 (26.7%) with acute infection 2/23 (8.7%) recovering from COVID‐19
4	Rawlings et al., 2020	6	38 (28–45)	RT‐PCR	12 (6–17)	No SARS‐CoV‐2 detected in Semen by RT‐PCR
5	Ma et al., 2021	12	31 (25–46)	RT‐PCR	78.5 (56–109)	No SARS‐CoV‐2 detected in Semen by RT‐PCR
6	Guo et al., 2021	46	41 (20–62)	RT‐PCR	32 (27.5–33)	No SARS‐CoV‐2 detected in Semen by RT‐PCR
7	Ruan et al., 2021	70	31 (21–49)	RT‐PCR	80 (IQR−64–93)	No SARS‐CoV‐2 detected in Semen by RT‐PCR
8	Paoli et al., 2020	1	31	RT‐PCR	27	SARS‐CoV‐2 not detected in urine or semen
9	Kayaaslan et al., 2020	16	33.5	RT‐PCR	0–7 days	No SARS‐CoV‐2 detected in Semen by RT‐PCR
10	Machado et al., 2021	15	19–43	RT‐PCR	4.2 days	1/15 (6.66%) Positive
11	Best et al., 2020	30	18–70	RT‐PCR	37 (IQR−23)	No SARS‐CoV‐2 detected in Semen by RT‐PCR
12	Holtmann et al., 2020	18	42.7 ± 10.4	RT‐PCR	8–54 days	No SARS‐CoV‐2 detected in Semen by RT‐PCR
13	Temiz et al., 2021	20	37.21 ± 8.59	RT‐PCR	NA	No SARS‐CoV‐2 detected in Semen by RT‐PCR
14	Our Study	11	29.72 ± 4.51	RT‐PCR	Median 44 days (Range −19–59 days)	No SARS‐CoV‐2 detected in Semen by RT‐PCR