Tag: Sperm Count

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Can environmental contaminants cause lower sperm count?

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sperm countThe amount of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) that mothers had in their blood during pregnancyaffected their sons’ semen quality at 20 years old. These findings appear in a recent study from Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, in which the Norwegian Institute of Public Healthparticipated.

Researchers had proposed hypotheses that increasing exposure to hormone-disrupting substances in the environment may be a contributory factor to reduced sperm quality. Therefore this study was initiated and found the following:

  • The sons of mothers with the highest concentrations of PFOA in the bloodduring pregnancy had a lower sperm concentration and total sperm count than the sons of mothers with the lowest PFOA levels.
  • A positive association was also found between PFOA exposure before birth and elevated levels of luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) in the sons’ blood. Read full article.
Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

BPA (and More) Lowering Sperm Counts Across the Board

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If there was a problem with fertility, most men wouldn’t know it until they tried to conceive a child. Everything can seem to be in great working condition, but low sperm counts leading to infertility are more common than we might think. As a matter of fact, contrary to popular belief, about half of all infertility cases involve some problem on the man’s side of the two-person equation.

Sperm Counts Plummeting from Chemicals

According to experts, this usually comes as a surprise to men, who assume everything is working well until their wife doesn’t conceive after a few months of trying. Unlike in women, where symptoms like missed periods of erratic bleeding can signal fertility issues ahead of time, for men the problem is undetectable until the sperm is expected to perform.

 Numerous factors can contribute to male infertility, but one—low sperm count—has progressively been getting worse over the past 50 years.

What’s causing the lowered sperm counts in men? Several things can be blamed, says Dr. Paul Turek, a male fertility specialist.

Contributing factors to a low sperm count include:

  • Keeping your cell phone in your pocket
  • Consistently using a laptop in your lap
  • Smoking
  • Drinking
  • Recreational drugs
  • Some hair loss medications
  • Illness
  • Stress
  • BPA
 

Yes, BPA (Bispehnol-A), still found in plastic food containers, can seriously affect both male and female fertility. Though the FDA recently moved to ban the use of BPA in baby bottles, it is still found in numerous everyday products. And even those labeled “BPA-free” now contain a distant relative to BPA, known as BPS chemical, whose affects may be just as detrimental. Read full article.