The Association Between Male Infertility and Cardiometabolic Disturbances: A Population Based Study

Abstract

Aim: Studies focusing of male infertility and cardio-metabolic disorders is insufficient and controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between male infertility and cardiometabolic disturbances in a population based Tehran lipid and glucose study. Material and methods: For the purpose of the present study, we used data collected in 3rd follow up visit of Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study, which included comprehensive data on reproductive status of participants. All those who were never married, were unwillingness to have a child, had documented female infertility were excluded from the study. A total of 1611 remaining participants were further classified as two groups: men who had documented male infertility as infertile group (n = 88) and those had at least one live birth and did not have a history of primary infertility as the fertile group (n = 1523). Generalized Linear Regression model (GLM) with logit link were applied to assess the to explore the association between male infertility and cardiometabolic disturbances including diabetes mellitus, pre-diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia, obesity, central obesity and chronic kidney disease after further adjustment for age and BMI.Results: Compared to fertile controls, infertile men were more likely to be older, [58 (13.3) versus 53 (10.2) years (P = 0.003)]. The results of unadjusted model revealed that infertility were significantly associated with hypertension and CKD, OR = 1.8 (95%CI: 1.2, 2.9, P-value = 0.006) and OR = 1.9 (95%CI: 1.1, 3.6, P-value = 0.033), respectively. However, the significant association, which were found in crude analyses, were disappeared after adjusting for potential confounders of age and BMI. Moreover, infertility did not have any association with other cardiometabolic disturbances including diabetes and pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia, obesity and central obesity in unadjusted and adjusted analysis. Conclusion: Our study revealed that there were not any association between male infertility and cardiometabolic disturbances in a population based setting. This study is an incentive to initiate more explicit surveys concerning this topic in order to provide more accurate data on male infertility. More population-based studies with large sample size are still warranted to confirm these findings.

Oxidative Stress and Male Infertility: Evidence From a Research Perspective

“…The authors concluded that medical comorbidities are associated with impaired sperm production and suggested that male infertility evaluation offers not only specific therapy to improve semen parameters but also treatment for non-specific medical comorbidities, which may benefit general health status and spermatogenesis restoration. Several other population-based studies have shown the association between male infertility and hypertension (125)(126)(127). Animal studies have also thrived in this aspect of reproductive research and have provided evidence that hypertension is associated to male infertility (128)(129)(130).…”

Association between male infertility and the risk of hypertension: A meta‐analysis and literature review

“…We identified 27 full text articles to reevaluate after screening the titles and abstracts. Ultimately, seven published articles involving 102,152 infertile men were included in this review (Behboudi‐Gandevani et al, 2021; Bungum et al, 2018; Cazzaniga et al, 2020; Eisenberg et al, 2015, 2016; Elenkov & Al‐Jebari, 2018; Kasman et al, 2019) (Figure 1). Table 1 summarizes the main characteristics of the included studies.…”

“…Currently, although many studies have focused on the impact of male infertility on hypertension, their results still conflict. Some studies have indicated that male infertility is significantly associated with hypertension risk (Eisenberg et al, 2015; Kasman et al, 2019), whereas others have reported no such association (Behboudi‐Gandevani et al, 2021; Bungum et al, 2018; Cazzaniga et al, 2020). To address this issue, we conducted a meta‐analysis and systematic review.…”

Effects of diabetes mellitus on sperm quality and fertility outcomes: Clinical evidence

“…A few authors investigated the association between prediabetes, semen and male sexual hormone parameters. A recent study 81 investigating 88 men with male infertility and 1523 men with at least one live birth reported no association between infertility and prediabetes.…”

“…A few authors investigated the association between prediabetes, semen and male sexual hormone parameters. A recent study 81 investigating 88 men with male infertility and 1523 men with at least one live birth reported no association between infertility and prediabetes. However, another recent study 82 investigating 744 men with primary infertility aged between 19 and 50 years reported a prevalence of prediabetes in infertile men of 15.4% and some infertility‐related abnormalities associated with prediabetes (see below).…”