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Impact of infertility duration on male sexual function and mental health

  • Reproductive Physiology and Disease
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to explore whether infertility duration has an impact on the sexual function and mental health of men from infertile couples.

Methods

We conducted a case–control study of 558 men from infertile couples, and the participants were divided into four groups based on their infertility duration: group I: ≤ 2 years; group II: 2–5 years; group III: 5–8 years; and group IV: > 8 years. Sexual function and mental disorders were measured using the International Index of Erectile Function-15 (IIEF-15), Premature Ejaculation Diagnostic Tool (PEDT), Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) separately.

Results

As the years of infertility duration increase, the total IIEF-15 score and four domains (sexual desire, orgasmic function, erectile function, and intercourse satisfaction) significantly decrease (p < 0.05). The PEDT score gradually increases significantly (p < 0.05). Increased infertility duration is an independent risk factor for erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation (p < 0.05). However, increased infertility duration is not a risk factor for depression and anxiety (p > 0.05).

Conclusions

Our study is the first time to use the infertility duration as an independent variable and group this variable to analyze its impact on the sexual function and mental health of men from infertile couples comprehensively and systematically. The increased infertility duration is an independent risk factor for the occurrence of sexual dysfunction but not for mental disorders. In the process of infertility treatment, sexual health and mental health cannot be ignored, especially for patients with prolonged infertility.

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Data availability

The original data has been uploaded to the supplementary file.

Code availability

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Mr. Xingchao Li for his language help in writing this manuscript.

Funding

This study received a grant from the Major Special Construction Plan for Discipline Construction Project of China Medical University (3110118033).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Reproductive Medicine, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, No.39 Huaxiang Road, Tiexi District, Shenyang, 110072, Liaoning Province, China

    Meng Dong, Shanshan Wu, Na Zhao & Jichun Tan

  2. Key Laboratory of Reproductive Dysfunction Diseases and Fertility Remodelling of Liaoning Province, Shenyang, 110072, China

    Meng Dong, Shanshan Wu, Na Zhao & Jichun Tan

  3. School of Life Sciences, China Medical University, Shenyang, 110122, China

    Meng Dong & Xue Zhang

  4. Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, No. 19 Xinjiekou Wai Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 10085, China

    Yanqiang Tao

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  1. Meng Dong
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  3. Xue Zhang
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  4. Na Zhao
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  5. Yanqiang Tao
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  6. Jichun Tan
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Contributions

DM: designed and executed the study, gathered, analyzed, interpreted the data, wrote the manuscript, and contributed to the critical discussion. WSS, ZX, ZN, and TYQ: recruited patients, analyzed and interpreted the data, and contributed to the critical discussion. TJC: acted as the supervisor, contributed to the study design, study execution, critical discussion, revised the manuscript, and approved the final submitted version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jichun Tan.

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Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Shengjing Hospital Institutional Review Board for Research on Human Subjects (2020PS009F).

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This is a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional study (investigate the sexual function and mental health of infertile patients in a specific period). The data are anonymous, and the requirement for informed consent was therefore waived. The permission to publish the data was already granted for the primary analysis objective.

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All the authors in this paper consent to the publication of the work.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Dong, M., Wu, S., Zhang, X. et al. Impact of infertility duration on male sexual function and mental health. J Assist Reprod Genet 39, 1861–1872 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-022-02550-9

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