Men's sperm count has halved, and the process is accelerating
Miscellaneous / / April 04, 2023
Alarming statistics that threaten male fertility. True, not everyone trusts these data.
The number of sperm in men around the world is declining at an accelerated pace, and over the past 40 years it has completely fallen by half. This is stated in a major new research from an international team of scientists led by Israeli epidemiologist Hagai Levin.
This work of scientists updates study 2017, which was scrutinized because it only included data for North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. It now includes data from more than 57,000 men across 223 studies in 53 countries, making it the largest meta-analysis ever done on the subject.
With additional data, the study confirmed the 2017 finding that sperm counts have dropped dramatically over the past four decades. Between 1973 and 2018, their concentration in non-fertile men fell by more than 51%, from 101.2 million to 49 million sperm per milliliter of semen.
In addition, evidence suggests that this global decline continues into the 21st century at an accelerated pace, with sperm counts now falling by about 1.1% per year.
Scientists do not yet know the reasons for such a sharp decline. It may be the effect of environmental pollution, plastic, smoking, drugs or medicines, as well as obesity and malnutrition.
It is worth noting that the figure of 49 million is still well beyond the range that the World the health organization considers “normal” between 15 and 200 million sperm per milliliter.
Also, sperm count is not the only factor that affects fertility. The speed of sperm movement, which was not measured in this study, also plays an important role.
Nevertheless, the authors of the work say that more research is now urgently needed "to prevent further damage to male reproductive health."
Other experts said that this meta-analysis, which included questionable study numbers 2017 is not of high quality data, so it is not important to attach such importance to it. costs. Allan Pacey of the British University of Sheffield noted that due to technological progress, scientists have simply become better at counting sperm.
Read also🧐
- Is it possible to get pregnant from lube
- Is sperm as useful as it is commonly believed
- What you need to know about a vasectomy before you decide to have it