Unhealthy lifestyles have little impact on sperm quality
Lifestyle advice given by doctors to men diagnosed with infertility should be radically overhauled according to research published today (Wednesday). Current guidelines from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence1 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, a team of scientists from the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield have found that many common lifestyle choices make little difference to male fertility, based on how many swimming sperm men produce. The study, published in the medical journal Human Reproduction , recruited 2,249 men from 14 fertility clinics around the UK2 and asked them to fill out 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. Surprisingly, men's use of recreational drugs, tobacco and alcohol, as well as their weight measured by their body mass index (BMI), had little effect3.
