Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: To analyse the semen quality in patients with newly diagnosed Hodgkin’s disease before starting the treatment.

Materials and methods: We evaluated semen quality in 67 patients with Hodgkin’s disease who underwent sperm banking in our clinic over a 10-year period. Semen samples were collected by masturbation after 2–7 days of sexual abstinence. Age at banking, semen volume, sperm concentration, and total and progressive sperm motility were recorded. Semen parameters were compared to established World Health Organisation (WHO) reference values (WHO Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen, Fifth Edition, 2010).

Results: The median age of the patients was 27 years (range 17–43); median semen volume was 2.0 ml (range 0.2–6.5); median sperm concentration was 57.9×106 per ml (range 0–413); median total and progressive sperm motility were 42 (range 0–79) and 24% (range 0–69) respectively. According to the reference values of the WHO 18 of 67 patients (26.9%) in this series had a semen quality within the normal range, and 49 of 67 patients (73.1%) had abnormal semen quality. In 2 patients (3%) the semen samples were not frozen because of azoospermia (no spermatozoa in the ejaculate). 35 patients (52.2%) had single damages (oligozoospermia or asthenozoospermia) and 12 patients (17.9%) had combined damages (oligoasthenozoospermia).

Conclusion: Patients with Hodgkin’s disease have an increased risk for inadequate semen quality before any treatment. 73.1% of these men in our study had abnormal semen parameters according to the WHO. Generally, all patients with newly diagnosed Hodgkin’s disease need counselling about their reproductive function and semen cryopreservation should be offered before undergoing gonadotoxic treatment.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.