The Association Between Male Infertility and Cardiometabolic Disturbances: A Population-Based Study

BACKGROUND: Further studies are needed to extend our knowledge about the association between male infertility and cardio-metabolic disorders. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess the association between male infertility and cardiometabolic disturbances using a population-based design. METHODS: In total, 1611 participants of the Tehran-Lipid and Glucose-Study (phase III) were categorized into two groups of men with documented male infertility (n = 88) and those with at least one live birth and no history of primary infertility (n = 1523). Logistic regression was applied to explore the association between male infertility and cardiometabolic disturbances, including diabetes mellitus, pre-diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia, obesity, central obesity, and chronic kidney disease, following adjustment for age and body mass index (BMI). RESULTS: The unadjusted model revealed a significant association between infertility and hypertension and CKD (OR = 1.8; 95% CI: 1.2, 2.9, P-value = 0.006 and OR = 1.9; 95% CI: 1.1, 3.6, P-value = 0.033), respectively. However, after adjusting for age and BMI, as potential confounders, this association was not significant. Moreover, there was no association between infertility and other cardiometabolic disturbances, including diabetes and pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia, obesity, and central obesity in both unadjusted and adjusted models. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed no association between male infertility and cardiometabolic disturbances. The findings can pave the way for further studies to extend our knowledge in this field. More population-based studies with a large sample size are warranted to confirm these findings.