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Clinical utility of serum 17-hydroxyprogesterone as a marker for medical therapy for male infertility: recommendations based on clinical scenarios

International Journal of Impotence Research volume 35, pages 79–81 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Traditional serum hormone testing in the evaluation of male infertility consists of testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, and estradiol. Based on these values, medical therapy is often initiated in an attempt to increase intratesticular testosterone levels and, in turn, promote spermatogenesis. While this hormone panel provides serum testosterone levels, it does not evaluate intratesticular testosterone, obviously an important factor that is critical for spermatogenesis. 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) is an intermediate in the steroidal pathway of cholesterol to testosterone conversion that has recently demonstrated promise as an accurate serum biomarker for intratesticular testosterone. At present, 17-OHP has not been widely adopted as a clinical tool in the evaluation of male infertility, which likely stems, in part, from a lack of concrete indications for its use. In this review, we present five commonly encountered scenarios of male infertility where the utilization of 17-OHP has aided in the management and provided a more personalized approach to treatment.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Rohit Reddy, Matthew Mason.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Rohit Reddy & Matthew Mason

  2. Desai Sethi Urological Institute, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Mehul Patel & Ranjith Ramasamy

Authors
  1. Rohit Reddy
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  2. Matthew Mason
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  3. Mehul Patel
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  4. Ranjith Ramasamy
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Contributions

Conceptualization: RoRe, MP, RR. Data curation: RoRe, MP, RR. Formal analysis: n/a. Funding acquisition: RR. Investigation: RoRe, MM. Methodology: RoRe, MP, MM, RR. Project administration: RR, MP. Resources: RR. Software: n/a. Supervision: RR. Validation: MP. Visualization: RoRe. Writing—original draft: RoRe, MM, MP. Writing—review & editing: MP, RR.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ranjith Ramasamy.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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This study is a clinical case review and did not require patient contact. All writing and crediting practices were conducted to the standard of Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS).

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Reddy, R., Mason, M., Patel, M. et al. Clinical utility of serum 17-hydroxyprogesterone as a marker for medical therapy for male infertility: recommendations based on clinical scenarios. Int J Impot Res 35, 79–81 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-022-00541-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-022-00541-z

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