Sperm counts in Western countries locked in ‘shocking’ downward spiral
Sperm counts of Western men are in a “shocking” downward spiral that poses a potential threat to fertility in industrialised countries, a major study has found.
Scientists documented a 59.3 per cent drop in the average amount of sperm produced by men from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand between 1973 and 2011. The trend appeared to be ongoing since the rate of decline remained “steep and significant” in the last 15 years of the analysis.
One possible cause could be environmental chemicals, it is claimed.
Dr Hagai Levine, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who co-led the research, said: “Given the importance of sperm counts for male fertility and human health, this study is an urgent wake-up call for researchers and health authorities around the world to investigate the causes of the sharp ongoing drop in sperm count, with the goal of prevention.”
Other fertility experts warned of a“double wham my” caused by falling sperm count and women waiting until their 30s to get pregnant.
The research is based on a rigorous analysis of pooled data from 185 carefully screened studies. It suggests that sperm counts have fallen by more than half in Western countries and the decline is real and not due to confounding factors such as different methods of measuring sperm numbers or population changes.
No similar pattern was seen in South America, Asia and Africa, although fewer studies had been conducted in these parts of the world.
Sperm count measures the number of sperm present in every millilitre of sperm and has a normal range of between 15 million to more than 200 million. A sperm count of less than 15 million is considered to be “low”.
Previous reports of falling sperm count have been hotly debated and challenged by some experts as unreliable.
Co-author Professor Shanna Swan said: “Decreasing sperm count has been of great concern since it was first reported 25 years ago.”