Assessing the Link Between Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Male Infertility

A study explored the causal relationship between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and male infertility. The findings were reported in Frontiers in Endocrinology. 

“(DM) stands as the most prevalent endocrine abnormality affecting the physiological systems and organs and impairing the male reproductive functions. (T2DM), accounting for about 90-95% of DM, is closely associated with male infertility. However, the magnitude of the causal relationships between T2DM and male infertility remains unclear,” the researchers wrote.

Investigators conducted a two-sample MR (2SMR) analysis to elucidate the causal relationship between T2DM and male infertility. They analyzed patient data from the the genome-wide association study (GWAS), and assessed T2DM and male infertility data from the IEU Open GWAS Project database, which consisted of 680 cases and 72,799 controls as the outcome data. The investigators employed five methods of MR methods were employed for the 2SMR analyses, namely the MR-Egger, weighted median estimation (WME), weighted mode (WM), inverse-variance weighted (IVW), and simple mode.

The results of MR-Egger, WM, WME, and simple mode approaches were: 0.824 (95% CI 0.703-0.966), 0.726 (95% CI 0.527-1.001), 0.827 (95% CI 0.596-1.150), 0.841 (95% CI 0.654-1.082), and 0.875 (95% CI 0.544-1.405), respectively. The results of heterogeneity testing were P=0.378 and P=0.384, respectively, which suggested no heterogeneity in the findings.

“This research furnishes evidence supporting a causal association between T2DM and male infertility. These insights offer a foundation for future investigations aiming to establish the association between genetically predicted T2DM and male infertility,” the researchers concluded.  They added that the findings “suggest the significance of active monitoring and proactive measures for preventing infertility in male individuals with T2DM.”