SELENIUM-VITAMIN-E SUPPLEMENTATION IN INFERTILE MEN - EFFECTS ON SEMEN PARAMETERS AND MICRONUTRIENT LEVELS AND DISTRIBUTION

In order to verify the hypothesis that selenium (Se) and vitamin E (Vi t E) could improve male fertility, nine oligoasthenoteratozoospermic m en were supplemented for a period of 6 mo with Se and Vit E. Compared to the baseline period (presupplementation) of 4 mo, statistically sig nificant increases were observed for Se and Vit E levels, sperm motili ty, percent live, and percent normal spermatozoa. These improvements a re likely to be ''supplementation-dependent,'' since all of the parame ters returned to baseline values during the posttreatment period. None of the couples reported a pregnancy during the study. The HPLC analys is conducted on the serum of one of the patients showed the existence of at least six different Se-containing peaks, whose Se content was af fected by supplementation. The mechanism(s) involved in these improvem ents of semen parameters is presently under investigation.