Effects of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Therapy on Gonadal Function in Men Clinically Confirmed with Subfertility: An Interventional Study at a Teaching Hospital, Ghana
The study aimed at assessing the effect of beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (βhCG) therapy on gonadal function in men with subfertility. This was an interventional study conducted at a teaching hospital in Ghana. A total of 57 clinically confirmed men with subfertility were recruited for the study. In addition to the demographic data, venous blood samples were collected, and baseline serum testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) were measured. Duplicate semen samples (mean values adopted) were collected and assayed following World Health Organization (2010) protocol. A dosage range of 1500 - 2000 IU βhCG was administered subcutaneously to each participant determined by the patients’ weight and medical history. The frequency of injection was 4 shots every 7 (±1) days for a period of 30 days. Repeated measurements of serum testosterone, FSH, LH, and semen analysis were done 90 days after intervention. The data were analyzed using GraphPad Prism (v8.0) at an alpha value of 0.05. The participants were aged between 23 and 55 years. The mean ± SD serum total testosterone, FSH and LH at baseline were 12.6 ± 3.7; 7.8 ± 2.7; and 4.1 ± 1.5 respectively with testosterone (18.0 ± 4.0) and FSH (5.5 ± 2.7) improving significantly (p < 0001) after 90 days follow-up. At baseline, the mean ± SD of semen parameters; pH, semen volume, total sperm count, sperm concentration were 7.90 ± 0.267, 3.1 ± 0.91 mL, 36.1 ± 19.7 × 106/ejaculate and 11.5 ± 4.97 × 106/mL respectively with total sperm count (p < 0.0001), sperm concentration (p < 0.0001), Active Forward Linear Progressive motility (p = 0.0005) and normal morphology (p = 0.0005) improving significantly after 90 days of follow-up. Beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (βhCG) therapy for subfertility is recommended since it improved gonadal function among men clinically diagnosed with subfertility, however, a multi-institutional study should be conducted to provide more evidence for this choice.
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