A global decline in sperm counts is accelerating including in India, found research that has stimulated a debate on the possibility of facing a reproductive crisis for humans if timely actions are not taken.
According to the analysis under the research, carried out by Professor Hagai Levine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Professor Shanna Swan at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York, the average sperm count globally has more than halved between 1973 and 2018.
The study, published on November 15, in the journal Human Reproduction Update, used data from 53 countries including India and focused on sperm count trends. The study does not share country-wise details and, also, did not examine the causes of sperm count declines.
However, the results of the research were quite evident in the day-to-day practice of fertility specialists in India.
For instance, Dr Richika Sahay, director of the IVF division at Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj, confirmed the trend that the semen analysis parameter for males has been declining over years.
“The year 1999 the manual the World Health Organization (WHO) created was the fourth manual and the fifth manual where they did the semen analysis revealed a huge decline,” Sahay recalled. “If you compare the first manual that came in 1955 and the fifth manual, the decline is clearly visible which is a major concern for male fertility.”
Several fertility experts echoed a similar trend.
Dr Arindam Rath, senior fertility consultant at Apollo Fertility (Kolkata), said environmental and lifestyle factors are having a profound impact on our reproductive competence, particularly in the male where increasing prosperity is associated with a significant rise in the incidence of testicular cancer and a similar decline in semen quality and testosterone levels.
On a population level, research suggests that median sperm counts have dropped from 104 to 49 million per millilitre over five decades.
The sperm concentration per millilitre of semen is down 52 per cent and stands at about 50 million. “This is still well above the World Health Organization’s cut-off below which men are considered to have a low sperm concentration, at 15 million per millilitre,” Rath pointed out. “Fertility starts to dip when sperm concentration goes under 40 million per millilitre and at the rate of the current decline, that number is set to be the global average within a decade.”
Why is the count declining?
Blame lifestyle, alcohol and cigarette abuse, and poor diet among other factors.
Also, experts pointed out that stress was not a worrying factor decades ago but now it is one of the major contributors to infertility in both men and women.
“The stress alters your daily routine ultimately resulting in lifestyle changes. The work pressure and timing also disturb the cycle; to complete assignments males are staying up late and it is affecting their fertility cycle,” Sahay from Fortis Hospitals said.
Other primary factors are alcohol abuse, cigarettes, and drugs, mainly anabolic steroids taken in the gym for bodybuilding.
“Assume a teenager who starts using anabolic steroids to work on his muscles and as he reaches the fertility age, the drug has already done the damage,” Sahay said while adding that there are a lot of challenges that humanity is going to face in future. Small but regular disturbances in the fertility cycle will increase the need for fertility experts.
Rath from Apollo Fertility focussed on the data from India’s fertility trend.
“The decline in sperm count was 30.31% whereas motility and morphology were reduced by 22.92% and 51.25%, respectively, between the time span of 13 years,” he shared.
How declining sperm count is linked to a reproductive crisis
Experts explained that poor foetal outcomes such as stillbirth, preterm birth, or admission of the baby after birth into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) could be related to poor quality of sperm.
“Poor foetal outcomes may also be correlated with the father’s preconception of environmental exposures,” Rath said.
While there is no concrete evidence to suggest the declining trend, fertility experts believe that one of the possible causes could be the “endocrine-disrupting chemicals” or other environmental factors.
“In adulthood, a man’s exposure to pesticides, lack of exercise, bad diet, smoking and obesity can decrease his sperm count. Excessive weight alters hormone levels and increases the amount of oestrogen in the male body,” Rath explained.
Additionally, excess fat around the male reproductive organs may increase the temperature there, reducing sperm production.
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