EVALUATION OF ZINC AND COPPER LEVELS AMONG MEN WITH LOW SPERM COUNTS ATTENDING MADONNA UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL, ELELE.

Male infertility, characterized by low sperm count, is a growing concern with significant implications for reproductive health. This study aims to evaluate the levels of serum copper and zinc among low sperm count patients attending Madonna University Teaching Hospital, Elele. Twenty-two (22) subjects from the hospital were recruited for the study. 9 of them were low sperm count infected subjects aged 25-50 years, and another group of 13 were apparently healthy individuals (control) aged 25-50 years. Ethical clearance and informed consent were duly obtained from those involved. Blood samples were collected via venipuncture, and the trace elements (copper and zinc) were measured using the atomic absorption spectrophotometric method. Data obtained from this study was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 for Windows 7 and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), which were used to compare the means. The results were expressed graphically, and the mean± S.D and values were considered significant at p0.05. The results from this study showed no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) in the mean values of serum copper for the low sperm count patients (0.04±0.040ppm) when compared with apparently healthy individuals(0.05±0.057 ppm). There was also no statistically significant difference (p >0.05) in the mean values of serum zinc for the low sperm count patients (0.12±0.06 ppm) when compared with apparently healthy individuals (0.36±0.39 ppm). This concludes that copper levels may not be associated with reduced sperm quality, but zinc levels are reduced in low sperm count.