Male fertility is sensitive to a myriad of factors. The National Institutes of Health reported that male fertility may be lowered due to physical labor, hypertension and multiple meds. According to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Stanford University, working in jobs that are physically demanding, having high blood pressure, and taking multiple medications are health risks which may undermine the fertility of men.
The has been the first study to investigate the associations which exist between workplace exertion, health, and semen quality in men who are attempting to conceive. Germaine Buck Louis, Ph.D., who is the study’s senior author and director of the Division of Intramural Population Health Research at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, says that about 15 percent of U.S. couples don’t become pregnant during their first year of attempting to do so. Dr. Louis says male infertility plays a significant role in this problem.
It was observed by the researchers that 13 percent of the men in the study who reported heavy work associated activity had lower sperm counts in comparison to 6 percent of the men who reported no exertion at the workplace. In contrast to this finding, no other work associated exposure, such as heat, noise or sitting for long periods, appeared to influence semen quality. Among men who reported having a diagnosis of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes the researchers observed that only those with high blood pressure had a decreased percentage of normally shaped sperm, in comparison to men who reported no high blood pressure.
Michael L. Eisenberg, M.D., the study’s principal investigator and director of Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at Stanford University, said that investigations are now needed to determine whether it’s the high blood pressure itself or the treatment that is creating this situation. With this consideration in mind the researchers found that the more medications a man reported he was taking, the higher his risk was of having a low sperm count.
This study has been published in the journal Fertility and Sterility. The researchers studied the association between physical occupational exposures and health on semen quality. They identified a negative association exists among occupational exertion, hypertension, and the number of medications with semen quality. Good news is that these are all potentially modifiable factors. It should therefore be kept in mind that men like women should be very careful with their health and well being, particularly when they want to conceive children.
