Secondary outcomes
The time interval between the achievement of euthyroid status and
observed effects on ejaculatory function among subjects in the studies,
presence of need for further treatment except intervention aimed at
euthyroidism for related EjD, treatment-related sexual side effects (de
novo ED or loss of libido, etc.), and economic aspects of treatment to
achieve changes in ejaculatory function were the secondary outcomes if
reported in eligible studies.
Synthesis of results: Data of eligible articles were
extracted into Excel sheets and analyzed for quality, the quantity of
the measured effect, the direction of the effect, and rated according to
the possible risk of bias.
Additional analysis: The random effects model was used
for all measures obtained from eligible studies. Measures of
intervention effect on outcomes with change over time or differences
between groups were the main aim of the current meta-analysis. We
initially evaluated the consistency of standardized correlation
coefficients between the IELT and serum TSH measurements of the subjects
across studies. Observed effect measures (p values) with 95% confidence
intervals, measured effects of thyroid dysfunction treatment with odds
ratios, and PRO and IELT measurements were analyzed. While different
methods were anticipated to be used in the measurement of IELT and PRO
measures of the heterogeneous group of subjects across the eligible
studies, a standardized mean difference was used to estimate the overall
size of the effect on the measured variable. We have used “Review
Manager (RevMan)” computer program Version 5.4 for windows from
“Cochrane Collaboration, 2020” and Open Meta program
(http://www.cebm.brown.edu/open_meta) during our study conduction. Both
of these programs have already been launched for the use of external
reviewers.