Association of sperm DNA fragmentation with abstinence duration, seminal oxidative stress and age: a call to consider abstinence in andrological diagnostics.

Authors

Ralf Henkel, Mohamed Arafa, Ahmad Majzoub, Haitham El Bardisi, Mausumi Das

Published in

Frontiers in urology. Volume 6. Pages 1926391. Epub Sep 22, 2026.

Abstract

According to World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, the abstinence period for a semen analysis is 2 to 7 days. Other professional medical societies recommend shorter abstinence periods. Since sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) is positively associated with oxidative stress, age and abstinence, this study aimed at investigating a threshold of abstinence for the diagnostic use of SDF testing.
In this retrospective study, SDF (HaloSperm) and oxidative stress (MiOXSYS) were tested in 2782 consecutive patients, attending the Department of Urology at Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar. Patients were stratified according to the abstinence.
Results showed significant trends of higher SDF and oxidative stress with longer periods of abstinence. ROC curve analysis with 20% SDF as classification variable resulted in thresholds of >4 days for abstinence, >37 years for age and 59.9 mV for oxidation-reduction potential. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed abstinence, age and oxidative stress as strong independent predictors of high SDF.
When requesting and interpreting an SDF test, abstinence, age and oxidative stress have to be considered. A maximum of 4 days of abstinence is recommended.

PMID:
42839926
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Oct 2026.

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