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Your support makes all the difference.Men born in the 1970s have sperm counts up to 25 per cent lower than those born in the 1950s, according to scientists who have found the first evidence of a decline in semen quality among UK males.
The new findings confirm international research which suggests sperm counts have fallen by almost half since the late 1930s, and will further fuel the controversy over claims that male fertility is in decline with "gender-bending" environmental chemicals to blame.
Dr Stewart Irvine and colleagues from the Medical Research Council's reproductive biology unit in Edinburgh, tested semen samples from 577 Scottish volunteers between 1984 and 1995. Sperm counts were 25 per cent lower in men born after 1970 than those born before 1959.
According to the report in tomorrow's British Medical Journal, the total number of sperm and moving sperm in the samples fell by about 2 per cent for each later year of birth.
Dr Irvine said: "These findings provide clear evidence of falling semen quality in the UK. However, more research is urgently needed to establish the causes of this phenomenon and to determine its links to male fertility and health."
In the same issue, French scientists report no decline in semen quality in 302 sperm donors attending a fertility clinic in Toulouse between 1977 and 1992. They were aiming to repeat the findings of a recent study in Paris which drew similar conclusions to the Edinburgh research. However, they point out that pollution levels and population density is greater in Paris, and that their findings strengthen the case for more environmental studies into a possible link with male infertility.
In a letter to the BMJ, an American scientist suggests declining sperm quality may be related to smoking, and that the sperm count of smokers is 16-25 per cent lower than that of non-smokers.
Fears about failing male fertility were first raised by Professor Niels Skakkebaek at Copenhagen University in 1992. He reviewed more than 60 international studies involving more than 15,000 men between 1938 and 1992. He showed that the average sperm count fell from 113 million per millilitre to 66 million in 1990. Subsequent studies in France and Belgium confirmed his findings.
The "oestrogen hypothesis" was then developed by American and British scientists to explain the findings. They suggested that more than 30 man- made and environmental chemicals - present in paints, plastics, DDT and exhaust fumes - which mimic the action of oestrogen, a female hormone, were responsible for falling sperm counts, defects of the male genitals, and testicular cancer. The intake of hormone-rich dairy produce, and the Pill have also been cited.
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