Recent study finds reduced
sperm count in Finnish men
by Liz Hunt
for the Independent (London)
January 3, 1997
Sperm production by middle-aged men has deteriorated by as much as 50%
in the last 10 years and testicles are smaller, according to a study by
Finnish scientists which provides further evidence of declining male fertility.
The proportion of men in Finland aged between 35 to 69 with normal spermatogenesis
- production of sperm - fell from about 56% to 27% between 1981 and 1991.
Over the same period there was a significant increase in the number of men
with no mature sperm cells, a condition known as spermatogenic arrest. The
incidence of complete spermatogenic arrest rose from 8% to 20%, and of partial
spermatogenic arrest from 31% to 48.5%. The post-mortem study of two groups,
one comprising 264 men who died in 1981 and the other of 264 men who died
in 1991 showed that the weight of the men's testicles had also diminished
over the study period; seminiferous tubes were smaller, and there was increased
fibrosis of testicular tissue. The mean age of the groups was 53, and there
was no significant differences in cause of death between the two groups.
More than half died from diseases and a third died violently or from intoxication.
Writing in tomorrow's British Medical Journal, Dr. Jarkko Pajarinen from
the Dept of Forensic Medicine at Helsinki University and coleagues write:
"...the incidence of normal spermatogenesis has decreased significantly
among middle-aged men, with a parallel increase in the rate of disorders
of spermatogenesis...between 1981 and 1991. This finding suggests that the
quality and dispatch of spermatogenesis are deteriorating in middle-aged
men and also confirms earlier presumptions on deteriorating spermatogenesis
being the main cause of decreasing sperm counts".
Another Scandinavian team first alerted the scientific community in 1992
to declining sperm counts. Prof. Niels Skakkebaek at Copenhagen University
reviewed studies involving almost 15,000 men between 1938 and 1992 and found
the average sperm count had fallen from 113 million per millilitre in 1940
to 66 million in 1990. |
