Is male fertility declining?

At least that is how it emerges from the ‘1st National Semen Study of Young Spaniards‘ which concludes that more than half of males between 18 and 30 years old have a low quality sperm. The study has been carried out in more than 60 reproduction clinics distributed throughout the 17 autonomous communities.

This work, which has analyzed the samples of 1,239 young people, highlights that most of them do not meet the requirements of the World Health Organization (WHO) that define the volume, mobility and concentration of sperm, which determine a good seminal quality and that reveals that pollution can contribute to this deterioration.

Pollution contributes to deteriorate the quality of sperm.

According to the study, this problem begins when the baby is in the womb, because it is at the mercy of toxic substances that can get through the umbilical cord and that influence the development of sperm as an adult.

For this reason, the most industrial and, possibly, the most polluted areas, such as the Basque Country, the Valencia Community and Catalonia, are those with the worst semen population, while in other regions such as Andalusia or Galicia, the percentage of the population With poor semen quality it is considerably reduced.

Among the substances that, according to the report, may interfere with seminal quality, include pesticides, disinfectants, solvents and other components used in the manufacture of industrial products.

What can be done to stop this decline?

Discarded the false myths that a long period of sexual abstinence guarantees a better sperm quality or that wearing tight underpants kills the sperm, there are several factors that do have a scientific basis. We have already cited the so-called “endocrine disruptors” (chemical substances that alter the hormonal system) in industrialized areas. It is also proven that men who ingest high levels of saturated fats have a 28% lower sperm concentration.