sperm concentration halved in the last 40 years – breaking latest news

The risk that the loss of male fertility will become an irreversible problem for the real human species and, in the worst case scenario, in 2070 men may no longer be able to bear children. To support it Italian Society of Andrology (SIA) who issued a warning on lifestyles, in particular on the increase in the age of conception and on sexual abstinence as an increasingly widespread habit among young people (it is estimated that there are over 1.6 million among those aged 18 -40 years old having “only” virtual sex). Added to these reasons are pollution and exposure to toxic substances, a mix of conditions capable of seriously impacting the quality and quantity of sperm.

Word to the andrologist

In just 40 years, Western men have seen their sperm count drop by 52.4%. The studies carried out document that, from 1970 to 2018, in the West there was an increase from 101 million sperm cells per ml of seminal fluid in 1970 to 49 million ml in 2018, declares Alessandro Palmieri, president of SIA and Associate Professor of Urology at Federico II University of Naples, who continues: A trend that is experiencing an unstoppable descent that is even more worrying due to the steep decline between 2000 and 2018, attested by the meta-analysis published last November in “Human Reproduction Update”. In fact, if from 1973 to 2000 the drop in sperm concentration was 1.6% each year, from 2000 to 2018 the reduction more than doubled, equal to 2.64% per year. If the trend will continue and will not be stopped, more than 40% of male fertility will be lost by 2070 with very serious dangers for procreation in Western countries, if we do not change the environment that surrounds us, the chemical substances to which we are exposed and our lifestyle.

Obesity, sedentary lifestyle and smoking are enemies of fertility

If you have fewer children, it is undoubtedly the fault of economic and social hardship, which leads to procrastinating the establishment of a family, but above all male fertility is in the dock, far from having grown with well-being. L’o
obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, the habit of smoking and the spread of sexually transmitted diseasesthey are in fact among the main causes suspected of having determined the chalo of sperm, to which must be added climate change and environmental pollution, underlines Palmieri. In particular, obesity triples the probability of low sperm concentration compared to men with normal weight. In obese men, the risk of infertility increases by about 10% for every 9 kg of body weight. Global warming also slows down spermatogenesis, already with a change of only 0.1 degrees Celsius. If the global temperature rises by 2.8 degrees by the end of the century, the long-lasting and progressive thermal stress will have a further negative effect on seminal quality which already undergoes significant variations in the hottest season.

Male fertility is also declining in Asia. Africa and South America

A work on the decline in sperm counts also in Asian, African and South American populations was published in Scientific Report. The quality of male semen must be considered a “sentinel” of the environment, given that a more serious drop in sperm concentration is noted in the areas most affected by pollution, declares Luigi Montano, SIA uroandrologist and past president of the Italian Society for Human Reproduction ( SIRU). And he continues: The recent WHO report on couple infertility, published in April 2023, also ascertains this, which speaks of a global average of 17.5% and in China of a figure above 23%. This was related to the high rates of pollution found in that country, which fell to second place, based on recent demographic projections, in the ranking of the most populous states on the planet after India.