The association of reproductive hormones, thyroid function, and vitamin levels with premature ejaculation: A prospective case-control study.

PURPOSE: To investigate whether serum hormone (testosterone, prolactin, gonadotropins, and thyroid hormones) and vitamin (vitamin B12, folic acid, and vitamin D) levels are associated with premature ejaculation (PE). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective case-control study included 126 patients with PE (lifelong PE [LPE] in 94 and acquired PE [APE] in 32) who presented to the urology outpatient clinic between April 2016 and January 2023 and 92 healthy men as a control group. The diagnosis of PE was based on the criteria defined by the International Society for Sexual Medicine. Serum total testosterone (TT), free and bioavailable testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, prolactin, thyroid-stimulating hormone, free triiodothyronine, thyroxine (fT4), vitamin B12, folic acid, and vitamin D levels were measured. RESULTS: Serum TT, fT4, and vitamin D levels were significantly higher in patients with PE than in the control group (p=0.022, p=0.002, and p=0.044, respectively). However, the serum vitamin B12 level was significantly lower in the PE group (p=0.021). In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, only vitamin B12 was found to be an independent risk factor for PE, with an estimated odds ratio of 0.997 (95% confidence interval 0.994-0.999, p=0.036). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that lower vitamin B12 levels are associated with the presence of PE. Therefore, we believe that it would be beneficial to consider vitamin B12 levels in the evaluation of patients with PE.

Impaired semen parameters in patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection: A prospective cohort study.

In this prospective study, we investigated the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on semen parameters in a cohort of men who had recently recovered from COVID-19. A total of 24 men who had recently recovered from mild COVID-19 were included in the study. Their semen parameters were normal before COVID-19 according to the World Health Organization 2010 reference values. Semen samples were collected from these participants in the recovery phases of COVID-19. To determine the effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection on semen parameters, the patients' pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 semen analyses were compared. The mean age of the participants was 34.7 ± 6.4 years. The median interval between the positive nasopharyngeal swab test and obtaining semen samples was 111.5 (158) days. There was no significant difference in semen parameters before and after COVID-19 in terms of semen volume (p = .56), sperm concentration (p = .06), and progressive motility (p = .14). Total motility (p = .01) and total motile sperm count (p = .02) decreased significantly after SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to the pre-infection values. This study demonstrated that sperm motility and total motile sperm count were the semen parameters which showed a significant reduction in cases with a history of mild COVID-19.