Male infertility not linked to lifestyle

[Posted: Wed 13/06/2012 by Gillian Tsoi www.irishhealth.com]

Unhealthy lifestyles have little impact on sperm quality, according to new research from the UK.

Lifestyle advice given by doctors to men diagnosed with infertility should be radically overhauled, suggest scientists from the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield.

Current guidelines advise doctors to warn infertile men about the dangers of smoking, alcohol consumption and recreational drug use, as well as the risks of being overweight and wearing tight underwear.

However, the scientists have found that many common lifestyle choices make little difference to male fertility, based on how many swimming sperm men produce.

The study involved 2,249 men from 14 fertility clinics around the UK, who completed detailed questionnaires about their lifestyle.

The information was then compared between 939 men who ejaculated low numbers of swimming sperm and a control group of 1,310 men who produced higher numbers.

The research found that men who ejaculated low numbers of swimming sperm were 2.5 times more likely to have had testicular surgery, twice as likely to be of black ethnicity, and 1.3 times more likely to be in manual work, not wear boxer shorts, or not had a previous conception.

The men's use of recreational drugs, tobacco and alcohol, as well as their weight measured by their body mass index (BMI), had little effect.

"Despite lifestyle choices being important for other aspects of our health, our results suggest that many lifestyle choices probably have little influence on how many swimming sperm they ejaculate. For example, whether the man was a current smoker or not was of little importance," said Dr Andrew Povey, from the University of Manchester's School of Community Based Medicine.

"The proportion of men who had low numbers of swimming sperm was similar whether they had never been a smoker or a smoker who was currently smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day. Similarly, there was little evidence of any risk associated with alcohol consumption.

"This potentially overturns much of the current advice given to men about how they might improve their fertility and suggests that many common lifestyle risks may not be as important as we previously thought.

"Delaying fertility treatment then for these couples so that they can make changes to their lifestyles, for which there is little evidence of effectiveness, is unlikely to improve their chances of a conception and, indeed, might be prejudicial for couples with little time left to lose."

In assessing male fertility, the team chose to use the number of swimming sperm men ejaculated because this broadly correlates with how fertile a man is likely to be and also often determines the type of fertility treatment that may be used if required.

The experts suggested that, despite their study findings, it's important that men continue to follow sensible health advice and watch their weight, stop smoking and drink alcohol within sensible limits.

Professor Nicola Cherry, originally from the University of Manchester but now at the University of Alberta, said:"the higher risk we found in manual workers is consistent with earlier findings that chemicals at work could affect sperm and that men should continue to keep work exposures as low as possible."

The study was published in the medical journal Human Reproduction.