Andrology-Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Hyper-Lipidemia and Male Fertility: A Critical Review of Literature

Agarwal Pushpendra and Jain GC

Hyper-Lipidemia/hypercholesterolemia is a major health problem all over the world and it is emerging as an important cause of adverse health outcomes including cardiovascular complications, metabolic disorders and infertility. Over the years, many population based studies have highlighted a trend towards deterioration of semen quality and decline of male fertility. The rise in worldwide dyslipidaemia combined with the trend of decreasing semen quality and male fertility, has called an attention of scientific community. A large number of research papers have been published to explore the links between hyperlipidaemia and male infertility. The aim of this review is to critically examine and summarize the data gathered during the past few years from both experimental animal models and human studies on the relation between hypercholesterolemia and semen parameters, endocrine status, spermatogenesis and male fertility. For this purpose, the PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were comprehensively searched with the help of various search terms. Experimental studies based on hypercholetrolemic/high fat diet fed animal models and studies conducted on normal infertile/obese infertile men clearly demonstrate a negative impact of hypercholesterolemia on testicular functions, reproductive hormone synthesis and secretion, sperm maturation, sperm quality parameters and ejaculatory functions leading to male infertility. Various mechanisms have been suggested for such actions.