Abstract
PURPOSE: To investigate whether serum hormone (testosterone, prolactin, gonadotropins, and thyroid hormones) and vitamin (vitamin B(12), folic acid, and vitamin D) levels are associated with premature ejaculation (PE). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective case-control study included 126 patients with PE (lifelong PE [LPE] in 94 and acquired PE [APE] in 32) who presented to the urology outpatient clinic between April 2016 and January 2023 and 92 healthy men as a control group. The diagnosis of PE was based on the criteria defined by the International Society for Sexual Medicine. Serum total testosterone (TT), free and bioavailable testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, prolactin, thyroid-stimulating hormone, free triiodothyronine, thyroxine (fT(4)), vitamin B(12), folic acid, and vitamin D levels were measured. RESULTS: Serum TT, fT(4), and vitamin D levels were significantly higher in patients with PE than in the control group (p=0.022, p=0.002, and p=0.044, respectively). However, the serum vitamin B(12) level was significantly lower in the PE group (p=0.021). In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, only vitamin B(12) was found to be an independent risk factor for PE, with an estimated odds ratio of 0.997 (95% confidence interval 0.994-0.999, p=0.036). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that lower vitamin B(12) levels are associated with the presence of PE. Therefore, we believe that it would be beneficial to consider vitamin B(12) levels in the evaluation of patients with PE.