Determination of Minimal Doses of Depot Medroxy Progesterone Acetate and Its Effect on Sperms Viability and Testosterone Level in Rat

Man will be the new focus for family planning program. Up to now, vasectomy has been the established methods for male contraception. However, this method creates some inconvenience such as irreversibility and phsycological problems. One of the alternatives is to develop a new contraception that is safe, effective and accepted by the society, which is the hormonal treatment using combination of depot medroxy progesterone acetate (DMPA) and androgen. The DMPA treatment is targeted to control spermatogenesis through hypothalamus-hypophysis-testes axis. However, the minimum dose of DMPA capable of suppressing testosterone level that lead to a reduced spermatogenesis and sperm viability remains unknown. Therefore, a research was aimed at determination of the minimal doses of DMPA for suppressing testosterone level that leads to a reduced fertility using male rats (Rattus norvegicus L.) strain Sprague-Dawley. A completerandomized design with unequal sampling size was used in the experiment. Several doses of DMPA (1.25; 0.625; 0.313 mg) were injected intramuscularly at week 0 and week 12. Castrated rats were used as control group. The results show a decrease in sperms concentration, sperm viability in the vas deferens and testosterone level in groups treated with DMPA, although the values were still significantly (p<.05) higher than in the castrated group. Furthermore, it is concluded that group with dose treatment of 1.25 mg showed lower sperms concentration, viability and testosterone level than groups given 0.625 mg or 0.313 mg dose, but the difference were not statistically significant.