Salivary Testosterone Levels in Infertile Men
August 1987
in “
Andrology
”
TLDR Men with low or no sperm count have lower salivary testosterone levels, and saliva testing can measure their testosterone well.
In a study from 1987, researchers investigated salivary testosterone levels in a group of 53 men, which included 18 men with normal fertility, 29 with oligospermia (low sperm count), and 6 with azoospermia (no sperm). They found that men with oligospermia and azoospermia had significantly lower salivary testosterone levels, averaging 0.266 nmol/l and 0.234 nmol/l respectively, compared to the control group's average of 0.348 nmol/l. Additionally, the study demonstrated a strong correlation between salivary and plasma testosterone levels in both fertile and infertile men, with correlation coefficients of 0.62 and 0.58, respectively, both statistically significant with P values less than 0.01. The researchers concluded that measuring salivary testosterone is a viable non-invasive method to assess androgen status in the context of male infertility.
