Effect of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids on Men's Semen among Gym-Goers: A Cohort Study

Abstract

Anabolic-Androgenic steroids (AAS) misuse are growing worldwide and used especially among male bodybuilders and gyms-goers for building muscle to improve their physical appearance. AAS misuse is considered a preventable factor of male fertility because it affects the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis resulting in transient or persistent suppression of spermatogenesis. The study Objective is to investigate the effect of anabolic steroids misuse on the semen parameters, suggestive of decreased male bodybuilders fertility whose anabolic steroids abuse. A prospective cohort study was conducted on 80 healthy male gym-goers divided into the case and control group who attending gyms in Mosul city. A structured interviewing questionnaire was used to collect information related to AAS misuse, semen specimen for evaluation of sperm parameters in a private analytics Lab, for a period 1st November 2020 until 15th March 2021. Semen analysis of AAS group exhibited highly significant (P.=0.000) in the overall mean of total sperm count\ejaculate was (18.83±24.02 vs. 139.5±24.80) and the percentage of sperm motility was significantly lower than the control group. AAS group have five times more likely to develop oligospermia than the control group (RR: 5; 95% CI: 2.690-9.293; P.=0.000). The use of AAS has a severe effect on male fertility, AAS users exhibited a severe decrease in sperm counts indicative of impaired spermatogenesis.