Big fall in sperm counts revealed in UK
13:42 05 January 04
NewScientist.com news service
The average sperm count of men may have fallen by as much as 29 per cent over
the past 12 years, according to a large new UK study.
Sperm concentration among men attending the Aberdeen Fertility Centre in
Scotland fell from 87 million per millilitre to 62 million per millilitre between 1989
and 2002. Nearly 16,000 samples were taken from 7500 men.
The dramatic decrease surprised doctors at the clinic, although concentrations
above 20 million per millilitre are considered to be healthy.
Aberdeen University's Siladitya Bhattacharya, who led the study, acknowledges
that the results might be skewed by the fact that the subjects were attending a
fertility clinic. "That is an inescapable fact. We weren't able to get a truly random
sample," he says. "Nevertheless, the drop in sperm counts must cause some concern, and
needs to be explained"
The results, presented on Monday at the Joint Meeting of the Association of
Clinical Embryologists and British Fertility Society, may also not be typical of the
whole of the UK.
Tight trousers
But there is growing evidence that environmental factors can cause sperm
counts to fall. Drug use, smoking, excessive drinking, obesity, and even tight fitting
trousers have all been blamed.
Environmental toxins such as pesticides has also been proposed as causes of
declining sperm counts, while a study published in July 2003 showed that chemicals
mimicking the action of estrogen and found in some foods can impair the normal
functioning of sperm.
However, despite the large number of studies in many parts of the developed
world, no consensus has been reached on why men sperm counts are dropping.
Alan Pacey, of the British Fertility Society, told the BBC that the study
would help researchers piece together the "jigsaw" of evidence. "British men actually
fare quite badly on the European stakes and the region of Europe which is known to
have the highest sperm count is Finland," he said.
The Aberdeen researchers plan to compare other aspects of the sperm samples,
such as motility, to see if their overall quality has declined in the same way as
their concentration.
Will Knight
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