Effect of Abstinence Time on Semen Parameters among Male Patients Referring to Urology Clinic

Introduction: Premature ejaculation (PE) is one of the most common disorders in sexual intercourses among men and may occur for any man in any period of his life. PE results in some mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and marital disaffection and can have psychological impacts. The present study is aimed to investigate the effect of the abstinence time on the semen analysis parameters among men.

Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on a statistical population including 100 male patients referring to the urology clinic in Ali-Ibn-Abitaleb Hospital. Once included in the study, these individuals are divided into three groups with short-term abstinence (less than 2 days), mid-term abstinence (2-9 days), and long-term abstinence (more than 9 days). The patients, depending on the group to which they belonged, were asked to deliver their semen at the specified time to the laboratory in less than an hour. The obtained data were statistically analyzed in SPSS-22 software.

Findings: The results of Pearson correlation and Spearman tests indicated a direct positive relationship between the abstinence time and the total number of sperms in the seminal fluid, concentration of the sperms in the seminal fluid, volume of the seminal fluid, sperm DNA fragmentation, reactive oxygen species in the seminal fluid, and pH of the seminal fluid.accordingly, the longer the abstinence time, the more the occurrence of these disorders. Also, the correlation test results showed that the abstinence time had an inverse relationship with motility and morphology of the sperms in the seminal fluid; accordingly, with elongation of the abstinence time, the motility (mobility) and morphology of the sperms in the seminal fluid were reduced.

Conclusion: The researchers in the present work concluded the presence of a relationship between the abstinence time and the quality of the sperm parameters. Results of the present study showed that the abstinence time is significantly associated with the total sperm count, sperm concentration seminal fluid volume and pH.