Regular Soccer Exercise And Its Effects On Male Reproductive Hormones In Adult Students Of A Nigerian Tertiary Institution-a Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: Football is one of the most popular sports in the world that impacts positively on individual's health and fitness. Several studies on effects of different forms of athletics' on female reproductive hormones have been published. However, there are limited but conflicting reports on the effects of different sporting events on plasma reproductive hormones levels of sport men.

Objective of study: This study intends to evaluate the possible effect of soccer on male reproductive hormones.

Methods: Atotal number of fifty undergraduate male students participated in this study. The study lasted for a period of three month [July-September 2015] and data were collected by self-administered questionnaire. Five milliliters of Blood samples were taken before and after the exercise from each participant and were examined for Luteinizing Hormone [LH], Follicle Stimulating Hormone [FSH],
Prolactin [PRL] and Testosterone using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay technique (ELISA).

Results: There was a significant increase in the mean FSH (p=0.02) and prolactin (p=0.04) levels after football exercise whereas mean  LH and testosterone value showed no significant increase (p=0.08 and p=0.97 respectively). A Pearson's correlation study showed a positive and significant relationship (p<0.05) between LH and FSH, whereas a negative relationship (p<0.05) between LH and
Testosterone were observed at different stages of the study. LH and prolactin values before exercise showed positive but non-significant correlation (r=0.047, p=0.76). A negative association (r=-0.084, p=0.58) was observed between LH and prolactin
after exercise.

Conclusion: Our study shows that regular football exercise could cause slight disruption in the plasma reproductive hormones values which could possibly lead to wrong interpretation of reproductive hormone results from male footballers.

Keywords: Luteinizing Hormone, Prolactin, Follicle Stimulating Hormone, Testosterone, Exercise and Males.