Follicle-stimulating hormone bioactivity in idiopathic normogonadotropic oligoasthenozoospermia: double-blind trial with gonadotropin-releasing hormone

OBJECTIVE: To identify, among patients with idiopathic normogonadotropic oligoasthenozoospermia, those with low bioactive follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), possibly because of inadequate gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) pulsatility, whose bioactive FSH and sperm could be improved by GnRH treatment. DESIGN: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with intranasal (IN) GnRH, followed by open GnRH treatment. SETTING: Outpatient endocrinology clinic. PATIENTS: Twenty-eight infertile men with idiopathic normogonadotropic oligoasthenozoospermia. INTERVENTIONS: Gonadotropin-releasing hormone or placebo was self-administered IN every 2 hours. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Serum immunoreactive and bioactive FSH and semen analyses. RESULTS: Ten men showed a low basal FSH bioactive/immunoreactive ratio, which increased in 5 of them under GnRH without parallel sperm modification. Sperm improvements were observed in 10 patients with no parallel evolution of FSH bioactive/immunoreactive ratio. Unpredicted by sperm changes, three pregnancies developed on placebo and 5 on GnRH. CONCLUSIONS: Low bioactive FSH was not the cause of idiopathic normogonadotropic oligoasthenozoospermia in our patients and could not predict response to GnRH. Pulsatile GnRH did not improve sperm beyond random fluctuations