HYPERPROLACTINEMIA AMONG INFERTILE PATIENTS AND ITS EFFECT ON SPERM FUNCTIONS

The effects of hyperprolactinaemia on sperm function were investigated in 264 men with oligozoo-, asthenozoo-, or teratozoospermia and who w ere attending a male infertility clinic. None of the patients exhibite d galactorrhea or complained of impotence. There was no correlation be tween abnormal values in spermiogram and hyperprolactinaemia. After mu ltiple measurements of serum prolactin concentration, 15 cases (5.7%) were diagnosed as hyperprolactinaemic (greater than or equal to 10 ng ml(-1)). Six of these patients were taking cimetidine and six were tak ing anti-anxiety drugs. Serum prolactin returned to the normal level a fter discontinuation of these drugs; thus these 12 cases were consider ed as drug-induced hyperprolactinaemia. The other three patients were diagnosed as having pituitary microadenomas and received bromocriptine treatment; the serum prolactin levels normalized within 1 month. No c hanges in sperm concentration, motility or morphology were found after normalization of serum prolactin levels. Sperm fertilizing ability wa s monitored by the hamster test for 10 months in the three patients wi th pituitary microadenoma, and no improvement was observed. Results su ggest that hyperprolactinaemia, which does not cause symptoms, has lit tle effect on the impairment of sperm functions. Measurement of serum prolactin in infertile men could be justified, however, for early dete ction of pituitary adenomas.