Is serum PSA a predictor of male hypogonadism? Testing the hypothesis

Male hypogonadism (MH) is common among infertile men. Besides testosterone, limited MH biomarkers are available, while researchers have suggested the use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) to help diagnose MH. Hence, we sought to evaluate the potential use of PSA to predict MH among relatively young men with infertility in Nigeria.

The study included 707 male partners (35-44 years) in infertile couples seeking infertility evaluation at a third-level care center in Nigeria. MH was diagnosed using standard guidelines. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and regression analyses explored the potential of serum free PSA (fPSA) and total PSA (tPSA) in predicting MH and MH-related clinical features.

In all, 29.7% of the patients had MH (MH+ve). The MH+ve group had lower mean values of fPSA and tPSA than the group without MH (MH-ve). The best fPSA threshold of < 0.25 μg/L compared with the best tPSA threshold of < 0.74 μg/L had higher accuracy (area under the curve [AUC] 0.908 versus 0.866, respectively), sensitivity (87% versus 83%, respectively), and specificity (42% versus 37%, respectively) for MH diagnosis. After adjustment for confounders, fPSA level ≤ 0.25 μg/L was more likely to predict MH-related decreased libido (odds ratio [OR] 2.728, p<0.001) and erectile dysfunction (OR 3.925, p<0.001) compared with tPSA ≤ 0.74 μg/L in the MH+ve group.

For MH diagnosis, fPSA and tPSA had good sensitivity but very poor specificity, although fPSA had better potential for MH diagnosis and association with MH-related clinical features than tPSA. Hence, fPSA could complement other biomarkers for MH diagnosis in men 35-44 years, although we recommend further studies to confirm these findings.