Shaving cream linked to sperm quality issues

Scientists are warning men the compounds in their shaving cream may be causing subtle changes in their sperm, reducing their chances of becoming fathers.

The problem, they say, is a ubiquitous class of chemicals called phthalates found in, among other things, such personal-care products as body sprays, colognes, shampoo and shaving cream, as well as in food packaging (most recently in some boxed mac ’n’ cheese products).

Phthalates appear to affect the DNA in sperm cells, not by changing the genes themselves, but by attaching little chemical “tags” that stick to some parts of a sperm cell’s DNA.

This can make genes more or less active than usual during sperm production, a change known as an epigenetic effect.

“There has always been this heavy concern in the past with expectant moms not smoking and not drinking, for example, to protect the fetus,” lead author Richard Pilsner, an environmental health scientist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said in a statement.

“In this study, we see that dad’s environmental health contributes to reproductive success.”

Spermatogenesis — sperm production — is a 72-day process, he added. “Our study shows that this preconception time-period may represent an important development window by which environmental exposures may influence sperm epigenetics, and in turn, early life development,” Pilsner said.

There’s long-standing evidence of sperm changes through epigenetics, but phthalates appear to be a new source and may be contributing to an apparent global slump in sperm counts.