HORMONAL PARAMETERS AND SEMEN MICROBIOLOGICAL PATTERN OF INFERTILE MALES: A COMPARATIVE CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY IN BENIN CITY, SOUTH SOUTH NIGERIA.

Background: In many Nigerian studies, male factors were responsible for up to 50 to 70% of infertility.

Aim: To evaluate the contribution of endocrinopathy and bacteriospermia to male infertility in Benin.

Study design: A comparative cross-sectional study.

Setting: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Central Hospital, Benin City.

Methodology: Male partners of 355 couples who presented with infertility over 8 months were studied. The data collected included socio-demographics, clinical features, hormonal assays, semen analysis, and semen culture. These were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21.0, employing both univariate and bivariate analyses, and multivariate logistic regression to identify independent determinants of abnormal semen analysis.

Results: The mean age of the subjects was 34.98±4.67 years and mean duration of infertility was 4.5±2.17 years. A total of 59.7% patients were of low socioeconomic status. The participants had at least a primary school education, and 81.7% dwelt in the urban areas of the state. Secondary infertility was the commonest (82.3%); while 56.6% of the subjects were overweight and 14.9% obese. 66.5% of participants had abnormal semen parameters. Oligospermia was the commonest (22.8%) abnormality. The commonest hormonal disorders were abnormality of luteinizing hormone (79.1%) and follicle stimulating hormones (26.8%). There was positive semen culture in 162(43.6%) of participants, of which 135(83.3%) had abnormal semen analysis (p=0.000). Men with positive semen culture had more than four-fold odds of having abnormal semen analysis (OR=4.554; 95%CI=2.761-7.513).

Conclusion: This study has shown that male endocrinopathy and bacteriospermia contributed significantly to male infertility in our environment.