Relation of Some Heavy Metals with Male Infertility

Background: Infertility is defined as a failure of achieve a pregnancy after one year and more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. The exposure of reproductive system especially the testis to heavy metals has also been associated with male infertility. A large number of metals are toxicants to the reproductive system. Patients and Methods: Study was performed at the high institute of infertility diagnosis and assisted reproductive technologies in Al-Nahrain University and the Poisoning consultation center/specialized surgeries hospital in the Medical city during the period from November 2018 to April 2019. A total number of 150 men were enrolled in this study who were divided into two groups, the patient and the normal control groups. The patient group included 100 men aged between 20-50 years. The second group included 50 healthy men who have at least two children without any previous history of systemic diseases as a control group. Heavy metals and trace element concentrations were estimated for all the study groups in this study. The aim of current study are evaluation of some trace element concentrations, in serum and whole blood of infertile men and healthy controls. Results: The heavy metals Cu, Pb and Cd showed a highly significant increase (p<0.01) in the serum and blood of infertile men (159.77 ± 8.49 μg/dl, 24.18 ± 4.30 μg/dl, 0.31 ± 0.10 μg/dl) respectively when compared with their concentrations in healthy control men (125.14 ± 10.12 μg/ dl, 15.74±2.69 μg/dl, 0.16 ± 0.03 μg/dl) respectively. The mean levels of Zn showed a highly significant decrease (p<0.01) in the serum of infertile men (70.82 ± 9.48 μg/dl) compared to its mean level in the healthy control group (95.70 ± 11.41 μg/dl). Conclusions: This study concluded that some heavy metals were shown to be an indicators for men infertility.