Safia Beshir*, Khadiga Salah Ibrahim, Weam Shaheen, Eman M. Shahy

Environmental and Occupational Medicine Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza, Egypt
 

BACKGROUND: Nickel exposure is recognized as an endocrine disruptor because of its adverse effects on reproduction.

AIM: This study was designed to investigate the possible testiculo-hormonal perturbations on workers occupationally exposed to nickel and to assess its effects on human male sexual function.

METHODS: Cross-sectional comparative study, comprising 105 electroplating male non-smoker, non-alcoholic workers exposed to soluble nickel and 60 controls was done. Serum luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone, testosterone levels and urinary nickel concentrations were determined for the studied groups.

RESULTS: Serum luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone, urinary nickel and the simultaneous incidence of more than one sexual disorder were significantly higher in the exposed workers compared to controls. The occurrence of various types of sexual disorders (decreased libido, impotence and premature ejaculation) in the exposed workers was 9.5, 5.1 and 4.4 folds respectively than the controls.

CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to nickel produces possible testiculo-hormonal perturbations in those exposed workers.
 

Citation: Beshir S, Ibrahim KS, Shaheen W, Shahy EM. Hormonal Perturbations in Occupationally Exposed Nickel Workers. OA Maced J Med Sci. http://dx.doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2016.046
Key words: Nickel; FSH; LH; Testosterone; sexual problems.
*Correspondence: Safia Beshir Ahmed. Professor of Environmental Health, Environmental and Occupational Medicine Department. National Research Centre , 33 EL Bohouth st. (former EL Tahrir st.) - Dokki – Giza – Egypt – P.O. 12622. Tel.: 002 01006285633. E-mail: safiabeshir123@yahoo.com
Received: 07-Feb-2016; Revised: 13-Mar-2016; Accepted: 14-Mar-2016; Online first: 31-Mar-2016
Copyright: © 2016 Safia Beshir, Khadiga Salah Ibrahim, Weam Shaheen, Eman M. Shahy.  This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
 

Full text (pdf)

Full text OnlineFirst (pdf)