{
  "abstract": "Background\n\nUnexplained infertility is a couple-level diagnosis made after standard female and male investigations do not identify a specific cause. Subtle cross-partner reproductive patterns may nevertheless be present. This exploratory secondary analysis assessed associations between female reproductive hormones and partner semen parameters in couples with unexplained infertility.\n\nMethods\n\nThis cross-sectional secondary analysis used paired data from 70 couples with unexplained infertility from a previously published case-control study conducted at Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital in Cairo, Egypt, from October 2018 through April 2019. The original study evaluated vitamin D and reported descriptive hormone and semen data; the cross-partner analyses reported here are new. Female follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, prolactin, estradiol (E2), and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) were correlated with partner semen volume, concentration, total count, total motility, progressive motility, and normal morphology using Spearman correlation. Thirty correlations were screened with Benjamini-Hochberg false-discovery-rate (FDR) adjustment. Targeted linear models were adjusted for female age and body mass index (BMI), with 5,000-resample bootstrap confidence intervals.\n\nResults\n\nFemale prolactin was inversely correlated with partner progressive motility (rho = -0.472, FDR q < 0.001) and normal morphology (rho = -0.595, FDR q < 0.001). TSH correlated positively with progressive motility (rho = 0.331, FDR q = 0.038) and morphology (rho = 0.419, FDR q = 0.003). E2 was nominally correlated with sperm concentration (rho = 0.284, p = 0.017) but did not survive FDR adjustment (q = 0.103). In age- and BMI-adjusted models, prolactin remained inversely associated with progressive motility (B = -0.401, bootstrap 95% CI -0.687 to -0.147) and morphology (B = -0.929, bootstrap 95% CI -1.282 to -0.620). The adjusted TSH association with morphology persisted (B = 4.076, bootstrap 95% CI 0.250 to 8.016), whereas the bootstrap interval for progressive motility included the null.\n\nConclusions\n\nFemale prolactin showed the most consistent inverse couple-level association with partner progressive motility and normal morphology. These cross-sectional findings do not establish biological effects of female hormones on male semen quality and should be regarded as hypothesis-generating pending independent prospective replication.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Princess Royal University Hospital, London, GBR",
    "Medical Education, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, GBR"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ikran Mohamud"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Mena Abdalla"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/enf4hh0cfk0ez.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.7759/cureus.117329",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13723329/?tool=EBI",
  "id": "enf4hh0cfk0ez",
  "issns": [
    "2168-8184"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13723329",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Obstetrics/Gynecology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2743|Sperm and Testicular Function"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7215068237",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13723329/pdf/?tool=EBI",
  "pmcid": "PMC13723329",
  "pmid": "42967193",
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": "Cureus Inc.",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/enf4hh0cfk0ez.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-02T03:21:51Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13723329",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13723329"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T12:21:56Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13723329",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.117329"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2743|Sperm and Testicular Function",
      "subfield": "reproductive-child"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Cross-Partner Associations of Female Reproductive Hormones With Semen Parameters in Unexplained Infertility: An Exploratory Secondary Analysis",
  "title_text": "Cross-Partner Associations of Female Reproductive Hormones With Semen Parameters in Unexplained Infertility: An Exploratory Secondary Analysis",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-04T12:21:56Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/enf4hh0cfk0ez",
  "venue": "Cureus",
  "versions": []
}