Ricerc@Sapienza

Background: Risk factors established during adolescence affect health outcomes in adulthood, although little is known about how adolescent health risk behaviours (HRBs) affect testicular development and reproductive health. Objectives: To assess prevalence of HRBs among last year high school students; to describe the most prevalent andrological disorders in this cohort; to explore HRBs associated with andrological disorders and investigate factors possibly associated with impaired testicular development in puberty.

It is commonly accepted that testicular function is prevalently regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis: The pulsatile secretion of GnRH by the hypothalamus induces pituitary expression of the two gonadotropins FSH and LH, which then stimulate Sertoli and Leydig cells, respectively, therefore regulating steroidogenesis and spermatogenesis. However, a growing body of evidence has recently suggested that other hormones act on the reproductive tract since the early phases of fetal development.