{"id":15929,"date":"2017-07-26T15:41:54","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T14:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/?p=15929"},"modified":"2017-07-26T15:41:54","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T14:41:54","slug":"sperm-counts-western-men-plummeting-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/sperm-counts-western-men-plummeting-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Sperm counts of Western men plummeting \u2013 Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sperm counts of men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand\u00a0<\/b><\/span>are plunging, according to a news analysis\u00a0published Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Among these men there has been a 52% decline in sperm concentration and a 59% decline in total sperm count over a nearly 40-year period ending in 2011, the analysis, published in the journal\u202f<\/span>Human Reproduction Update, said.<\/p>\n

Scientists determine sperm count by looking at a sample of ejaculate under a microscope. For sperm concentration, they measure how many millions of sperm there are in each milliliter of fluid. Sperm count, then, is sperm concentration multiplied by the total volume of an ejaculate.<\/p>\n

Researchers led by Dr. Hagai Levine of Hebrew University of Jerusalem examined thousands of studies and then conducted a meta-analysis of 185 studies. These included 42,935 male participants who provided semen samples between 1973 and 2011. The chosen studies were well distributed over the nearly 40 years of the study period and among 50 different countries. The analysis included information on fertility status, age, ejaculation abstinence time, semen collection method, sperm count method and geographic location at the level of continent.<\/p>\n

Based on their analysis, the international team of researchers from Brazil, Denmark, Israel, Spain and the United States reported\u00a0<\/b><\/span>a decline in sperm concentration of 1.4% per year with an overall drop of 52.4% during the entire study period for men living in industrialized, Western countries. Meanwhile, total sperm count among the same group plunged 1.6% per year and 59.3% overall. By comparison, the researchers found no significant declines in the sperm counts and sperm concentrations of men living in South America, Asia and Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extent of the decline is a heartache,\u201d said Levine. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe \u2014 it\u2019s hard to believe for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The high proportion of men in Western countries with sperm concentrations below 40 million\/ml is \u201cparticularly concerning,\u201d wrote Levine and his co-researchers, because evidence indicates that a sperm concentration below this threshold is associated with a \u201cdecreased monthly probability of conception.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levine noted that his study follows in the footsteps \u201ca seminal paper published in 1992\u201d known as the Carlsen study. In that meta-analysis of 61 studies worldwide, researchers led by Elisabeth Carlsen, a Danish reproductive biologist, found a trend toward decreasing sperm count and volume of seminal fluid over a 50-year period ending in 1991.<\/p>\n

Many people did not accept the results of the study, said Levine, \u201cit was quite controversial whether or not there is a decline.\u201d However, Levine noted,\u00a0<\/b><\/span>\u201cthere were serious limitations to the [Carlsen] study.\u201d For example, a common criticism of the Carlsen group is that it included one overly large study \u2014 it contributed 30% of the total participants, thus heavily influenced the results. By comparison, the largest of the studies examined by Levine\u2019s group included only 5% of all participants.<\/p>\n

Since 1992, other researchers conducted analyses to understand whether sperm counts have declined, yet the results were mixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we have a pretty solid answer,\u201d said Levine, who said his own study performed a meta-regression, \u201ca more conservative, sophisticated analysis,\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/span>one that accounts for factors that might influence the results.<\/p>\n

Though Levine emphasized that his analysis did not study the cause of declines, he speculated the reason may be \u201cwe are exposed to many chemicals we\u2019ve never been exposed to before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous studies, including his own, show that exposure in utero to endocrine disrupting chemicals can harm male reproductive system development and fertility potential. Commonly used chemicals, including pesticides, lead and fire retardants, can increase or decrease production of certain hormones within our bodies and so are said to disrupt our endocrine, or hormone-making, system.<\/p>\n

Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst at the nonprofit advocacy group Environmental Working Group, noted that sperm is manufactured daily by men\u2019s bodies. Recent exposures to environmental chemicals would have an effect on sperm, which serves as a good indicator of contamination, while also serving as a good biomarker of men\u2019s health.<\/p>

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Lunder cites the work of Russ Hauser, a professor of reproductive physiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who suggests that exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be associated with poorer sperm quality among men and worse reproductive outcomes among women.<\/p>\n

Still, Lunder noted, \u201cthere\u2019s not one route to reduction in sperm quality and sperm count for men. By all accounts, people assume there are multiple factors at work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Dourson, a professor in the Risk Science Center at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, said in an email that \u201cthe overall work appears to be solid with numerous safeguards for assuring systematic review and data analysis.\u201d Dourson, who was not involved in the research, added, \u201cthe observed trends appear to be real, and not based on chance findings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, Dourson noted that he wondered about the \u201cfunctional significance of the findings.\u201d The authors wrote that \u201cpoor sperm count is associated with overall morbidity and mortality,\u201d yet Dourson noted that \u201clongevity is increasing\u201d in Western countries so \u201cthese two observations do not appear to match.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI suspect that obesity may have something to do with these trends, but measures of obesity, such as BMI (body mass-index) were not analyzed,\u201d said Dourson, who was recently nominated\u00a0to head the US Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. \u201cOverall, however, a request for funding for further exploration seems well founded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Harry Fisch, a clinical professor of urology at Weill Cornell Medicine, said the results of this study are likely to be \u201creal.\u201d Fisch, who has also researched this topic \u2014 though he was not involved in the current analysis \u2014 noted that one issue with all studies is the fact that sperm counting methodologies have not been standardized across the globe or even within most countries.<\/p>\n

Another very important consideration is how geography influences sperm count. \u201cEven within the US, different states have different counts,\u201d said Fisch, though all states fall within the range of normal. Fisch observed that the new analysis did not delve into differences among countries.<\/p>\n

The only environmental factor that\u2019s \u201cnot controversial\u201d and \u201cknown to influence sperm counts is temperature change,\u201d said Fisch, who noted that sperm counts are known to vary by season and by climate. \u201cI think global warming, not phthalates, is responsible\u201d for the declining rates seen here, he said. Phthalates, found in everything from flooring to personal care products, are one type of endocrine disrupting chemical.<\/p>\n

Kathryn St. John, senior director of strategic communications for the American Chemistry Council, noted this meta-analysis, though a systematic review, is a study of other studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe original studies did not account for fundamental and important information about lifestyles and health status of participants, so such factors cannot be accounted for in the overall results,\u201d said St. John, who noted that sperm count is just one measure of male health. \u201cAs to the overall state of men\u2019s health, it should be noted that life expectancy for men in the US has increased by 25 years over the past 100,\u201d St. John said.<\/p>\n

But each scientist and representative agreed: Questions around sperm quality warrant continued research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact of the modern environment on health of populations and individuals is clearly huge, but remains largely unknown,\u201d said Levine. \u201cSperm count has previously been plausibly associated with environmental and lifestyle influences, including prenatal chemical exposure, adult pesticide exposure, smoking, stress and obesity. Every man can reduce exposure to chemicals, avoid smoking, keep balanced diet and weight and reduce stress.\u201d (CNN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sperm counts of men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand\u00a0are plunging, according to a news analysis\u00a0published Tuesday. Among these men there has been a 52% decline in sperm concentration and a 59% decline in total sperm count over a nearly 40-year period ending in 2011, the analysis, published in the journal\u202fHuman Reproduction Update, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15930,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[457],"coauthors":[2391],"class_list":["post-15929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-health","tag-sperm"],"yoast_head":"\nSperm counts of Western men plummeting \u2013 Report - National Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/sperm-counts-western-men-plummeting-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sperm counts of Western men plummeting \u2013 Report - National Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sperm counts of men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand\u00a0are plunging, according to a news analysis\u00a0published Tuesday. 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