The European Science Foundation is warning that too little attention and money are being paid to the issue of male reproductive health in European countries, where a host of issues affecting young men might be contributing to lower fertility rates.
Reduced semen quality, increased incidence of testicular cancer, and high incidence of congenital reproductive malformations such as cryptorchidism, combined with women delaying pregnancy, "will lead to increased fertility problems in couples and its attendant socioeconomic impacts," the organization said in a report published Nov. 29. "The crucial question is whether semen quality among young men in Europe is now so low that it has reached a threshold at which fertility rates may be affected."
An estimated one-fifth of 18- to 25-year-old European men have oligospermia, as measured by World Health Organization guidelines, according to results from a large cohort study (Am. J. Epidemiol. 2009 September 1;170(5):559-65) cited in the report.
The report’s corresponding author, Dr. Niels E. Skakkebaek of the University of Copenhagen, has been among Europe’s most vocal proponents of the need to increase attention to male reproductive problems, having conducted investigations into factors as diverse as caffeine intake, pesticide exposure, consumption of hormone-treated beef, and a history of febrile illness in affecting semen quality. Increasingly, Dr. Skakkebaek and other fertility researchers have focused on threats to male reproductive health that emerge during fetal development, particularly testicular abnormalities – frequently precursors to poor fertility – associated with mothers’ exposure to environmental chemicals.
Poor male reproductive health also is linked to obesity, Dr. Skakkebaek and his colleagues noted, with more research needed into the associations between male reproductive, endocrine, and cardiovascular health.
Six other authors contributed to the ESF report, which identified conflicting data and wide regional differences in reported semen quality as measured by sperm count. While sperm counts across Europe have long been reported to be dropping, possibly because of environmental factors, large variations in reported sperm counts among geographic regions are suggestive, the report’s authors said, of "insufficient quality management systems in different geographic areas which may affect the validity of the results."
The ESF, a nongovernmental organization made up of 79 European research institutions, declared a need for increased funds to attack the problem, suggesting that each country set aside up to 5 million euros a year to investigate causes of male reproductive decline, and standardize methodologies for reporting sperm counts according to World Health Organization guidelines.
The group also called for a transnational, multidisciplinary research project, with funding of 5 million euros per year over a decade, for research to examine environmental chemicals and genetic background factors affecting on male reproductive fitness. The project should "utilize available methods, birth and adult cohorts, to tease apart the relative importance of developmental vs. adult causes of low sperm counts/infertility," ESF said.