Growth hormone treatment of subfertile males

To study spermatogenesis and sperm motility during GH therapy in infertile men.

Prospective open study. Each patient was treated with GH for 12 weeks and followed for a total of 36 weeks with sampling of blood and semen.

Outpatients studied at a clinical research unit of a university hospital.

Nine oligozoospermic (<5 x 10(6) sperm/mL) males and nine asthenozoospermic (percentage motile sperm <30 and >15 x 10(6) sperm/mL) males. The patient groups had a significantly lower GH response to an arginine GH stimulation test as compared with a control group.

Serum insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and serum IGF-binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) levels increased significantly during GH treatment, as did seminal IGF-I. Serum E2, T, PRL, FSH, LH, and GH-binding protein were unchanged during the study. Sperm motility was increased significantly during GH treatment in both patient groups. There was no difference in sperm count during the treatment. There were three pregnancies in the nine couples from the asthenozoospermic group and no pregnancies in the oligozoospermic group.

The biologic and clinical results in this study encourage the initiation of double-blind, placebo-controlled trials.