Effectiveness of antibiotic treatment in infertile patients with sterile leukocytospermia induced by tobacco use

ABSTRACT

Our study investigated whether antibiotic therapy in infertile tobacco users with sterile leukocytospermia and a history of former sexual transmitted disease (STD) has an advantage over cessation of smoking alone. For this study, 80 male infertile smokers were divided into two subgroups. The first group numbered 40 patients treated with a two week course of doxycycline, 100 mg, twice daily, while the second group simply ceased smoking. A control group of 20 patients with chronic abacterial prostatitis (CPPS III a) were treated with the same antibiotic for two weeks. Patients from the first group exhibited significantly higher values in semen volume, total motility, and progressive motility of spermatozoa, when compared with the second group, two weeks post treatment. The latter two measures persisted during the 12 week follow up period. In both groups of patients, the correlation coefficient between the number of leukocytes and progressive motility was determined as statistically significant. However, in the control group the correlation was not statistically significant; however progressive motility, total motility, and vitality were significantly improved after a two week course of antibiotics. Our study implies that antibiotic treatment is perhaps effective in treating sterile leukocytospermia in smokers with a former STD and is a more effective treatment option in improving sperm parameters over smoking cessation alone.

Abbreviations: STD: sexual transmitted disease; CPPS IIIa: chronic abacterial prostatitis; PSA: prostatic specific antigen; EPS: expressed prostatic secretion; WBC: white blood count; LUTS: lower urinary tract symptoms; PPMT: pre-massage and post-massage urine test; VAS: visual analogue scale

KEYWORDS:

• Antibiotic treatment
• infertility
• leukocytospermia
• semen analysis
• tobacco smoking

Declaration of interests

Authors did not have any support funding of the paper. The authors of this paper hereby declare that they have not received nor shall receive any financial benefits from publishing the paper, neither have they received any financial incentive from a third party. We, the authors, hereby solemnly declare that we are not in any situation which could give rise to a conflict of interest.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bogdan Pajovic

Each author has contributed to the research process. Conceived and designed the experiments: PB, VM; Performed the experiments: PB, VM; Analyzed the data: PLj. Wrote and revised the paper, read and approved the final manuscript: All authors.

Ljiljana Pajovic

Each author has contributed to the research process. Conceived and designed the experiments: PB, VM; Performed the experiments: PB, VM; Analyzed the data: PLj. Wrote and revised the paper, read and approved the final manuscript: All authors.

Marko Vukovic

Each author has contributed to the research process. Conceived and designed the experiments: PB, VM; Performed the experiments: PB, VM; Analyzed the data: PLj. Wrote and revised the paper, read and approved the final manuscript: All authors.