Relationship between inflammatory markers, hormonal profiles, and sperm parameters

The aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between semen parameters, complete blood count, and hormone levels on the day of spermiogram.

Semen parameters of 230 patients who were examined for full blood count test and hormone levels on the day of spermiogram were included in the study. Patients were grouped according to the total motile sperm count (TMSC), semen parameters, hemogram, and hormone levels were compared between groups.

No statistically significant difference was found between groups in neutrophil ratios, neutrophil, lymphocyte, platelet counts, neutrophile-to-lymphocyte ratio (N/L), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (P/L). However, white blood cell (WBC) and lymphocyte counts were weakly positively correlated with sperm concentration (p=0.021, p=0.026), and a weakly significant positive correlation was found with WBC and neutrophil count for motility (p=0.038, p=0.004). FSH level was found to be lower in cases with TMSC >20 m than those with TMSC <5 m and 5-10 m (p=0.004, p=0.022). LH was found to be lower in cases with TMSC >20 m than those with TMSC <5 m (p=0.048). A negative correlation was found for both FSH and LH levels with sperm concentration, motility, and TMSC (p<0.001, p=0.014).

In this study, a significant negative correlation was demonstrated between FSH, LH levels and sperm concentration, motility, TMSC. N/L and P/L cannot be used as predictive markers of sperm quality. The results of a significant positive correlation between WBC, neutrophil counts, and sperm parameters encourage researchers to conduct prospective randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes and different inflammatory and hormonal markers.