If you have been trying to conceive for a year or longer, you may be dealing with male infertility, and might be interested to hear about a possible link between male infertility and prostate cancer.
A new study has shown that male infertility might increase the risk of prostate cancer.
According to Dr. Thomas J. Walsh, who is an assistant professor of urology at the University of Washington, and also the lead author of a report that was published online March 22nd, 2010 in the journal Cancer:
“To my knowledge, this is the first study to identify a link between male factor infertility and prostate cancer.”
Dr. Walsh stated that there have been hints of a link between male infertility and prostate cancer before, but that those studies were biased because they looked at men who were screened by urologists because they were identified as being infertile, instead of comparing their risk of prostate cancer with that of all other men in general.
The new study did not have that bias because it used a statewide database of prostate cancer cases maintained in California. The incidence of prostate cancer in the general population was compared with the incidence of prostate cancer in 22,562 men who were evaluated for infertility at fifteen California centers between 1967 and 1998.
Overall, the incidence of prostate cancer in the two groups was found to be basically the same. However, when the tumors were measured by the Gleason score for aggressiveness, the incidence of men with elevated Gleason scores, and hence more aggressive tumors, was discovered to be 2.6 times higher in infertile men.
That’s pretty impressive, and certainly does suggest a distinct link between male infertility and aggressive prostate cancer.
This study may prove to be beneficial because now, infertile men can be screened sooner and more often for prostate cancer.
It is important to note that Dr. Walsh cautions infertile men not to panic about having prostate cancer, because the incidence is still very low.
If you or your partner has male infertility, this study might be something you will want to discuss with your doctor.
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