HEALTH: Stress Causes Infertility in Men

The increasing rate of infertility among men could partly be as a result of stress in jobs and other spheres of life engaged in by the men, a new health research report has shown.

In Nigeria, for example, there are no adequate statistics of men suffering from infertility, but experts have constantly raised concerns about a growing rate of the challenge in the country.

These concerns have resulted in the proliferation of herbal remedies in the form of drugs and other aphrodisiacs advertised and sold locally along streets in the country.

The new study shows that stress, apart from resulting in health problems, including heart disease, asthma, obesity and depression, can also reduce sperm and semen quality, thus affecting the male fertility.

In the study carried out by researchers from the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, and Rutgers School of Public Health in Piscataway, New Jersey, and published in the journal of Fertility and Sterility, they discovered that 'stressful life events' including a level of unemployment can cause infertility in men.

The researchers, who studied 193 men between the ages of 38 to 49, said their finding, after filling a form and providing semen samples, showed that two or more stressful life events in the past year had lower sperm quality than men who did not experience any stressful life events.

Using standard fertility testing methods, researchers reportedly analysed semen concentration, sperm shape (morphology) and movement (motility) in each sample to reach their conclusion.

'Although workplace stress did not directly affect semen quality in the men, the researchers found that those who experienced job strains had lower levels of the hormone testosterone in their semen, which could affect reproductive health.

'In addition, they found that regardless of the levels of stress experienced, men who were unemployed had lower semen quality than those who were employed.' the Medical News Today reported.

Assistant Professor Teresa Janevic at the Rutgers School of Public Health, explained that stress had long been identified as having an influence on health.

'Our research suggests that men's reproductive health may also be affected by their social environment.'
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, had said that men make up 40 percent of infertile couples with cause of male infertility including sperm abnormalities or immobile sperm, lifestyle factors, medical conditions like undescended testicles or ejaculation problems.