Influence of Radioactive Background on an Idiopathic Form of Infertility Incidence in Men from Different Regions of Ukraine

Abstract

There are 143 men (group I) with idiopathic infertility in the form of asthenozoospermia of the II degree living in the territories of the Kiev region (Poles’ky, Chernobylsky, Ivan’kovsky, Borodyansky, Vyshgorodsky districts) were investigated in the Department of Sexual Pathology and Andrology of the SI «Institute of Urology of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine» and exposed to ionizing radiation due to the Chernobyl accident in 1986. All individuals in the I group were born from parents who were in the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the area of radioactive contamination and permanently resided in areas with a high level of radioactivity. The control group was made up of persons born and living in the Ivano-Frankivsk region with a similar condition (group II, n=57). The mean age of the studied group I was 28,3±2,4 years, and persons of the II group were 30,1±2,8 years. Diagnosis of II was performed ambulatory in accordance with WHO and Ministry of Health of Ukraine standards. The study was to study and compare spermogram parameters in patients from both groups. It has been established that the reproductive problems of men with idiopathic infertility living in radiation-polluted areas of the Kiev region of Ukraine consist in a significant violation of the quality indicators of ejaculate (mobility by the pool A+B is less than 1,6 times, p<0,05) correlating with modifications of physicochemicals (the average time of liquefaction is 1,4 times greater, p<0,05) and biochemical (decrease of levels of fructose by 2,2 times, citrate – by 1,6 times, p<0,01–0,05) data characterizing the effect of ionizing radiation, as one one of the leading factors of male genital function violation. The study found that the level of general indicators of spermogramm is significantly worse in the regions of Ukraine who were exposed to radioactive contamination due to the Chernobyl accident, in contrast to the indicators of persons from conditionally pure regions.