The effect of chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) on semen parameters in human males: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is one of the risk factors of impaired male fertility potential. Studies have investigated the effect of CP/CPPS on several semen parameters but have shown inconsistent results. Hence, we performed a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to assess the association between CP/CPPS and basic semen parameters in adult men. Methods: Systematic literature searches were conducted with PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library up to August 2013 for case-control studies that involved the impact of CP/CPSS on semen parameters. Meta-analysis was performed with Review Manager and Stata software. Standard mean differences (SMD) of semen parameters were identified with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) in a random effects model. Results: Twelve studies were identified, including 999 cases of CP/CPPS and 455 controls. Our results illustrated that the sperm concentration and the percentage of progressively motile sperm and morphologically normal sperm from patients with CP/CPPS were significantly lower than controls (SMD (95% CI) 214.12 (221.69, 26.63), 25.94 (28.63, 23.25) and 28.26 (211.83, 24.66), respectively). However, semen volume in the CP/CPPS group was higher than in the control group (SMD (95% CI) 0.50 (0.11, 0.89)). There was no significant effect of CP/CPPS on the total sperm count, sperm total motility, and sperm vitality. Conclusions:The present study illustrates that there was a significant negative effect of CP/CPPS on sperm concentration, sperm progressive motility, and normal sperm morphology. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to better illuminate the negative impact of CP/CPPS on semen parameters. © 2014 Fu et al.