CA 125 in seminal plasma: correlation with semen parameters.

Ovarian cancer marker CA 125 was measured in human seminal plasma, and the concentrations ranged between 22 and 1149 U/ml, and between 39 and 4711 U/ejaculate. This very high patient-to-patient variability was in contrast to a much lower within-patient variability, which was comparable to that of other semen parameters. No significant differences in CA 125 concentration were found in seminal plasma from normospermic patients, patients with male factors, vasectomized men, and in aliquots of samples which led to a pregnancy, via artificial insemination or in-vitro fertilization. The seminal plasma CA 125 concentration was not correlated with sperm count, motility and morphology. In contrast, seminal plasma CA 125 concentrations correlated with the age of the patient (P < 0.001) and inversely with the volume of the ejaculate (P < 0.001). These correlations were independent of each other. CA 125 did not correlate with the prostatic marker zinc, but did do so with the seminal vesicle marker fructose and the epididymal marker carnitine.