Infertility is often seen as a problem for women in some of the Asia Pacific’s more conservative societies, but medical science begs to differ and men in the region are waking up to the fact that it affects them as well.
According to the World Health Organization, men account for about half of all infertility cases. A 2017 report found that 24% of infertility cases were due to problems found in the male partner, and another 24% were due to both partners.
Testing both partners rather than just women only, can reduce the money and time spend on expensive fertility treatments.
Japan has the highest number of fertility procedures in the world. In 2016, just under 450,000 procedures were performed, more than triple the number conducted 10 years earlier, according to the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology. However, these treatments are not insured by health insurance, and they can cost 300,000 to 400,000 yen ($2,700 to $3,600) each, and often amount to around 2 million yen before a child is conceived. Just by focusing on woman, many treatments are ineffective, driving up the cost.
In a paper published in Andrology this week, University of Geneva scientist revealed that Swiss sperm quality falls near the bottom of the pack in Europe — and far short of World Health Organization standards.
17% of young Swiss men in the sample group had low sperm counts below WHO standards, 25% had sperm below motility threshold, and 43% abnormal sperm morphology. Only 38% actually passed that category.
The United States, China, and more than one European country (see Denmark and France, for example) have also noted declines in sperm count and quality — though not all of the studies showing these results have been conducted on a national level, as Switzerland’s was. In 2017, a review in Human Reproduction Update took all that evidence into account to declare that sperm counts had declined between 50 and 60 percent in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe between 1973 and 2011.
The WHO’s reference value for sperm count is about 15 million per milliliter of semen. 40% of the sperm have to be motile, and 4 percent have to have normal morphology.
The results of this recent Swiss study is statistically more accurate that they took samples of semen from 2,523 men between 18 and 22 who attended Swiss army clinics. This way, we can eliminate data biasness, as compared to sampling from fertility clinics, which was a concern about semen quality studies in the past.
Why Is Semen Quality Declining?
There are plenty of things that happen during a man’s life that could impact sperm count, motility, or morphology.
Generally, the idea is that many different factors might affect sperm quality, including exposure to pollution, obesity, stress, or smoking tobacco. Marijuana, on the other hand, has shown some counterintuitive effects on sperm count.
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