February 23,1996. Copyright, 1996, Graphic News. All rights reserved

SPERM COUNTS ON THE DECREASE IN BRITAIN
By Nicholas Booth, Science Editor

LONDON, February 23, Graphic News- Both quality and quantity of sperm in British men are on the decline, researchers in Edinburgh have confirmed today. This is the first British study to corroborate the worrying, worldwide trend that sperm counts in young men are decreasing by roughly two per cent per year. The reason for the decline is not known, but is sufficiently worrying, authorities warn, that studies of its long-term effect on human health and male fertility are urgently needed.

In a paper published in todayÕs British Medical Journal (BMJ), Dr Stewart Irvine and his colleagues at the Centre for Reproductive Biology in Edinburgh present their findings, based on the study of samples from semen of 577 donors over an 11 year period. Unlike previous studies Ð which have been piecemeal and based on different techniques Ð the study was continuous and consistent. The team found a significantly reduced concentration of sperm in men born after 1970 than those born before 1959. The younger men had a quarter less sperm in comparable samples to the older men in this study, with an average fall in sperm counts of 2.1 per cent per annum.

Any number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain the problem. One involves pollutants contained in plastics, pesticides and solvents which mimic the female sex hormone, oestrogen, and interfere with testicular development in the unborn foetus. In this weekÕs BMJ, an American doctor suggests that smoking may be implicated while an editorial indicates that certain artificial hormones and DDT may be partly to blame. As yet, nobody has made any study on the effects of fertility in the population: as sperm counts decrease, the number of female egg fertilisations may also decrease. 

Clearly it is a worldwide problem, with the World Health Organisation estimating that around 50 to 80 million couples are infertile, mainly the result of male dysfunction. 

Sources: British Medical Journal, Medical Research Council