Sperm: Keeping count of problems

Surely, 26,000 Frenchmen can’t be wrong? 26,609 to be exact. That’s the number of men studied recently who showed a drop in fertility as measured by their sperm count.

Sperm samples from these men were analysed and showed a 32% drop from 74 million/ml in 1989 to 50 million/ml in 2005.

Before you panic, let me reassure you that 50 million sperm/ml is still well over the lower limit for normal fertility, which is 15 million/ml.

It’s just that the fewer sperm a man has, the longer it will take him and his partner to conceive, not that they won’t conceive at all.

But a man’s fertility starts to drop with a sperm count under 40 million/ml and that waning fertility may become significant when taken together with his partner’s.

The fertility of a couple is the sum of their fertilities. So, if a woman decides to wait till she’s over 35, when her own fertility is dropping, and her partner’s sperm count is below the ideal 40 million/ml they may get impatient trying for a long time for a baby.

I well remember the days when difficulty in conceiving was first and foremost thought to be a female problem and women were put through gruelling fertility tests before the man was investigated. It seems crazy now, knowing that men account for four out of 10 infertile couples and a specimen of sperm is so easy to obtain.

With conception being left later and later, remember a young, healthy couple has no more than a 25% chance of conceiving in any one menstrual cycle.

If you’re not so young and not so healthy, your chances are even lower. Research indicates that a sperm count of under 40 million/ml leads to a rapid fall in these chances and nearly half of all men falls into this category.

It’d be best for would-be fathers, then, to cut out all those things known to reduce their sperm counts. These include smoking, drinking, obesity, sitting down all day at a desk or in a car and wearing tight underpants.

Instead they should wear loose boxers to keep the testicles cool, go for a diet that’s high in fruit and veg and low in animal fat and shower rather than soak in a hot bath.

Women aren’t exempt. It’s known that the size of a man’s testicles, and therefore his sperm count, was determined when he was growing in his mother’s womb.

We know if a mum-to-be drinks and is obese this can lead to small testicles in their son.