The Question About Ivermectin and Male Infertility

Recently someone took issue with the claim that ivermectin causes fertility issues in men.

This first highlighted link shows a Netherlands journal discussing the 2011 study, but I'll be providing other links in this post as well.

Study: Ivermectin makes men infertile

The 2011 study in Nigeria found significant effects but in a small sample size. This, plus where the study was published were used to question the results of that study.

However, what else do we know about ivermectin and male fertility?

A 2008 study showed that ivermectin did produce fertility issues in male rats. The effects were compounded when ivermectin was combined with a second drug.

Effect of ivermectin on male fertility and its interaction with P-glycoprotein inhibitor (verapamil) in rats

A similar study was repeated and published on September 7th, 2017, and concluded, again, ivermectin does have impacts on fertility of male rats and again that the effects were compounded with another drug.

Effects of ivermectin and its combination with alpha lipoic acid on expression of IGFBP-3 and HSPA1 genes and male rat fertility

Even Snopes refuses to mark this as "False" and instead labels the unfertility claim in human males as "Unproven".

Ivermectin Fertility in Men Fact Check

One of the effects of ivermectin against mosquitos in pursuit of malaria control was significantly decreased egg production by surviving females. So, again, ivermectin is associated with a fertility problem (this time in females). This was from a peer-reviewed NIH study about livestock in pursuit of malaria elimination.

Administration of ivermectin to peridomestic cattle: a promising approach to target the residual transmission of human malaria

However, we also know that selenium administration in rats reduces the testicular dysfunction in rats.

Vitamin E and selenium administration synergistically mitigates ivermectin and doramectin-induced testicular dysfunction in male Wistar albino rats

The right conclusion here appears to be, as one science journal noted, caution about overprescribing ivermectin in humans, until more testing can be done. But the available facts demonstrate that ivermectin does cause fertility issues in various species other than humans and that caution ought to be taken with regard to human ingestion of ivermectin, especially unsupervised administration of ivermectin for purposes which it has no proven positive effects. In particular, ivermectin appears to interact with other drugs to cause other effects.

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