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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Reproduction
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1472333
This article is part of the Research Topic Male Reproduction and Oxidative Stress, Volume II View all 9 articles

Association of abstinence time with semen quality in men who undergoing fertility evaluation: a cross-sectional study from 3052 participants

Provisionally accepted
Guanying Yao Guanying Yao 1Qinglin Qi Qinglin Qi 2Xianchao Dou Xianchao Dou 3Wen Zhou Wen Zhou 4Shun Bai Shun Bai 5*Xi Zhang Xi Zhang 6
  • 1 Department of Reproductive Medicine, Nanyang Central Hospital, Nanyang, Henan, 473000, China, Nanyang, China
  • 2 Pingxiang Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Pingxiang, China
  • 3 Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu, Anhui Province, China
  • 4 The Second Affiliated Hospital, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
  • 5 Reproductive and Genetic Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
  • 6 Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Abstinence time has been associated with semen quality, but the results remain controversial. This study recruited 3052 men undergoing fertility evaluation. Abstinence time (AT) was categorized as short (0-1 day), WHO-recommended (2-7 days) and long (>7 days). Semen parameters including volume, sperm concentration, progressive motility, total motility, total motility sperm count (TMSC), morphology and DNA fragmentation index were assessed for their association with AT. Short AT was significantly associated with lower semen volume (P < 0.001), sperm concentration (P = 0.01) and TMSC (P < 0.001), while long AT was significantly associated with higher sperm concentration (P = 0.006), reduced progressive motility (P = 0.005) and total motility (P = 0.02), and higher DFI (P < 0.001). Restricted cubic spline models demonstrated a non-linear relationship between AT and the risk of low semen volume (P non-linear < 0.001), sperm concentration (P nonlinear = 0.039) and TMSC (P non-linear < 0.001). Our findings suggest both short and long AT were significantly associated with lower sperm quality, which indicated the importance of maintaining a recommended AT (2-7 days) for semen analysis. Additionally, short abstinence periods may be recommended to maintain optimal sperm DNA integrity.

    Keywords: Abstinence time, Semen quality, Semen parameters, DNA fragmentation index, DFI

    Received: 29 Jul 2024; Accepted: 09 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yao, Qi, Dou, Zhou, Bai and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shun Bai, Reproductive and Genetic Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.