Low-dose cortisone for male infertility.

Thirty-eight males with idiopathic infertility were randomly treated with low-dose thyroid and low-dose cortisone. Pregnancy followed treatment with cortisone in 7 of 33 courses and followed treatment with thyroid in 4 of 30 courses (P = 0.5, not significant [NS]). The mean pretreatment count in all patients was 12.3 million/ml. The mean post-treatment count with thyroid was 11.2 million/ml as compared with 13 million/ml for cortisone treatment (P = 0.4, NS). Pretreatment motility was 45% as compared with 44% following thyroid treatment and 43% following cortisone treatment (P = 0.7, NS). The pregnancy rate seemed to correlate with pretreatment counts rather than with the type of treatment. The efficacy of low-dose cortisone for idiopathic fertility would seem to be in question.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes