Association between periodontal status and idiopathic male infertility

About 30% of male infertility cases are idiopathic. Previous studies reported a positive correlation between deep periodontal pockets and sperm sub-motility, which suggests that periodontitis might have a role in idiopathic semen abnormality pathospermia. We evaluated correlations between periodontal infection parameters and the results of sperm analysis of men with idiopathic infertility. In this observational study, semen quality and periodontal status were analyzed for 95 otherwise healthy men attending an andrology unit for sperm analysis. Half the men in the sperm pathology and normozoospermia groups (50.8% and 50%, respectively) had poor periodontal status. Among the 95 participants, 38% had oligozoospermia, 28% had asthenozoospermia, 16% had cryptozoospermia, and 15% were classified as normozoospermic. Sperm pathology category was not associated with frequency of deep periodontal pockets or calculus. Bleeding on probing was significantly lower among men with asthenozoospermia than among those with normozoospermia. Poor periodontal status was not associated with any sperm pathology category or parameter. In contrast with previous findings, the present results indicate that pathospermia and poor semen quality are not associated with periodontal infection in men with idiopathic infertility. (J Oral Sci 58, 247-253, 2016).