TUESDAY, May 17 (HealthDay News) -- Shorter anogenital distance (AGD) appears to be associated with infertility in men, according to research published online May 11 in PLoS One.
Michael L. Eisenberg, M.D., of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and colleagues measured AGD with digital calipers in 117 infertile men and 56 fertile men to see whether there was a difference in measurements between the two groups.
The researchers found that the infertile men had significantly shorter AGD (31.8 versus 44.6 mm) and penile length (107.1 versus 119.5 mm) than the fertile men, a difference that persisted aside from ethnic and anthropomorphic differences. AGD also correlated significantly with sperm count and density, increasing by six million sperm and 4.3 million sperm per mL with each 1 cm increase in AGD. On adjusted analyses, the researchers saw no correlation between penile length and semen parameters.
"A longer AGD is associated with fatherhood and may predict normal male reproductive potential. Thus, AGD may provide a novel metric to assess reproductive potential in men," the authors write.
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