No link between man's sexual drive and low sperm count TNN Aug 29, 2012, 03.52AM IST
Tags: Women|Vitamin C|stress|Obesity|infertility|Ghulam Nabi Azad|Genetic|diabetes|depression|aging
(Experts say that it is a common…) NEW DELHI: Varun and Priya Gupta (name changed) had failed to have a child even after six years of their marriage. A visit to a fertility expert, however, came as a shocker for Varun, who had till then blamed his wife for failing to conceive.
Varun's semen analysis test showed that he suffered from oligospermia (low sperm count). He was advised to go in for either Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) or Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI).
Experts say that it is a common misconception that low sperm count is a corollary to deflated libido. Doctors say that there is no connection between a man's sexual drive and low sperm count. All men with lower sperm count are not likely to have lower libido due to lower testosterone.
"A man with a high libido or sex drive may suffer from low sperm count. The two aren't connected," said fertility expert Dr Sonia Malik.
An increasing number of Indian men are suffering from both reduced sperm count and sub-optimal sperm quality.
Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said last Friday that studies are showing that not only is infertility increasing among Indian men, their sperm count and sperm quality too is taking a beating due to "xenobiotics emanating from chemical industries".
Doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had earlier found that while the sperm count of a normal Indian adult male used to be 60 million per ml just three decades ago, now it is around 20 million per ml. Over 12-18 million couples in India are diagnosed with infertility every year.
Dr Tanya Buckshee Rohatgi, fertility expert from Max Hospital, says there appears to be a global decline in semen quality and a host of influences like environmental exposure, nutritional, behavioral, or genetic factors seemed to be the cause.
Proposed behavioral factors include a rise in obesity, diabetes, and overall poor health and unfitness in men or factors lumped under the umbrella term "urban lifestyle".
"Although only one sperm is needed to fertilize an egg, several studies have shown that its fertilizing ability starts diminishing if the sperm concentration is below 15 million/ml or if the percentage of normal spermatozoa is below 5% (an average ejaculation contains about 66 million per ml). However, men can produce new sperm every 68-74 days and in case of an abnormal sperm test it should be repeated to confirm the results. On the contrary, women are born with a fixed egg number, which declines with age especially after 35 years," Dr Rohatgi said.
Dr Rohatgi says men with low sperm counts are often advised to abstain from sex to improve their sperm count. However, new research suggests that too much abstinence can damage the DNA (genetic make up) of the sperm that is produced.
Dr Malik says the main cause of male infertility is because of faulty sperm count, and has no reflection on the individual's sexual prowess.
"Sometimes men with testicular problems may have very low sperm count. Anti-oxidants have very good effect on testis. We tell our patients they must have lot of fruits and green vegetables in their diet which is high on anti-oxidants," she said.
A new study by scientists from the U S Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on Tuesday found that a healthy intake of micronutrients is associated with improved sperm DNA quality in older men.
In an analysis of 80 healthy male volunteers between 22 and 80 years, the scientists found that men older than 44 who consumed most vitamin C had 20% less sperm DNA damage compared to those in the same age group but consumed least vitamin C. The same findings hold good for vitamin E, zinc, and folate.
"It appears that consuming more micronutrients such as vitamin C, E, folate and zinc helps turn back the clock for older men. We found that men who are 44 and older and consumed at least the recommended dietary allowance of certain micronutrients had sperm with a similar amount of DNA damage as the sperm of younger men," says Andy Wyrobek of Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division.
"This means that men who are at increased risk of sperm DNA damage because of advancing age can do something about it. They can make sure they get enough vitamins and micronutrients in their diets or through supplements," adds Wyrobek.
Their research comes as more men, who over 35 have children, raising public health concerns. Previous research conducted in Wyrobek's lab found that the older a man is, the more he's likely to have increased sperm DNA fragmentation, chromosomal rearrangements and DNA strand damage. Older men are also more likely to have increased frequencies of sperm carrying certain gene mutations, such as those leading to dwarfism. These findings help explain why aging men are less fertile and are predicted to have more chromosomally defective pregnancies and a higher proportion of offspring with genetic defects.
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