Abstract
Objective
To characterize sociodemographic differences in semen parameters among US men undergoing
a semen analysis.
Materials and Methods
Men who provided a semen sample were identified from insurance claims between 2007
and 2016. Differences in semen parameters were characterized according to age, race,
education, and region. Mean semen parameters and proportions of men with suboptimal
parameters were compared and risks of oligospermia and azoospermia were assessed by
logistic regression.
Results
Of the 7263 men included, most men were white (55.1%), Hispanic (20.2%), or Asian
(10.2%). Asians had the highest mean semen concentrations (69.2 × 106/mL), whereas blacks had the lowest (51.3 × 106/mL). Men from the Midwest were more likely to have oligospermia (odds ratio [OR]
1.62; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.34-1.94), whereas men from the West were less
likely (OR 0.82; 95% CI 0.82-0.94) when compared with men from South. An association
between education and sperm concentration was observed. For example, men with a high
school diploma or less were more likely to have oligospermia (OR 1.09; 95% CI 0.95-1.26),
whereas men with at least a bachelor degree were less likely (OR 0.87; 95% CI 0.76-1.0)
when compared with men with less than a bachelor degree.
Conclusion
As we observed differences in semen quality based on sociodemographic factors, these
findings may have clinical implications as relying on a single reference value when
guiding infertile couples may be problematic given these variations. Further work
is warranted to understand the etiology of such differences and determine if different
normative reference values may apply for different populations.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: October 06, 2018
Accepted:
September 25,
2018
Received:
July 10,
2018
Footnotes
Financial Disclosure: CHG, SL, CAZ, and JPB declare no support from any organization for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous 3 years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. ME is an advisor for Sandstone. AG reports personal fees from Merck-Serono, Finox, IBSA Pharmaceuticals, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and from Novo-Nordisk, outside the submitted work.
Funding Support: The ReproUnion collaborative study, co-financed by the European Union, Interreg VÖKS paid a portion of CHG's salary and expenses.
Identification
Copyright
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