Concentrations of Intracellular Sex Steroids in Human Spermatozoa

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Abstract
In an attempt to determine whether human spermatozoa contain steroid hormones, the immunoreactive levels of progesterone, testosterone, and estradiol-17/3 were measured in the extracts of sonicated specimens of sperm obtained as ejaculates from husbands of infertile couples (n - 67, age 26–44 years). In the range of sperm concentration between 3.0 and 869.6 million per ejaculate (143.2 ± 13.6 mean ± SEM), the concentrations were as follows: progesterone 127.3–6685.4 fmol/ml (1434.5 ± 178.6), testosterone 98.3 ± 2219.1 fmol/ml (611.6 ± 49.0), and estradiol-17/3 33.0 - 678.1 fmol/ml (206.9 ± 19.7). Using Pearson's correlation coefficient, the steroid hormone levels correlated significantly with the total sperm number (p <. 02). The spermatozoa contained small but measurable amounts of the sex steroids.