Semen quality in sub‐fertile range for a significant proportion of young men from the general German population: a co‐ordinated, controlled study of 791 men from Hamburg and Leipzig

Abstract

Population studies have shown that a high proportion of Nordic men may have so poor semen quality that they can be classified as sub-fertile according to international standards. A question is whether the Nordic data are specific for the Nordic countries or they should be seen as an expression of a general trend in Europe. We therefore carried out a prospective study of semen quality of young men raised in the former East Germany (Leipzig) and West Germany (Hamburg). To enable inter-regional comparisons, we utilized a common European research protocol previously used in studies in the Nordic-Baltic region. Three hundred and thirty-four young men representative of the general population from Hamburg, and 457 from Leipzig delivered semen samples, underwent physical examinations and provided information on life-style and reproductive health parameters. The study period in Hamburg was February 2003--July 2004, and in Leipzig July 2003--April 2005. No significant differences were observed in sperm concentration (median 46, 42, and 44 million/mL for men from Hamburg, Leipzig and the combined Hamburg-Leipzig group respectively) or total sperm count (154,141 and 149 million), whereas the differences for morphologically normal spermatozoa (9.4 and 8.4%) and motile spermatozoa (67 and 81%) were significantly different. Previously published studies have shown reduced fertility with decreasing sperm concentrations below 40-55 millions/mL and normal sperm morphology below 9-19%. Thus, a large fraction of young German men seem to have impaired semen quality that may reduce their natural fertility. However, it remains to be investigated to what extent poor semen quality contributes to the low German fertility rates.

Pesticide Exposure and Health Related Issues in Male and Female Reproductive System

“…However, Olsen et al (1995) reanalyzed the data used in a linear model to predict sperm quality deterioration in the last 50 years, advocate that the data are only robust during the last 20 years , in which other statistical models (quadratic, spline fit and stairstep), except the linear model, suggest constant or slightly increasing sperm counts. Studies from Italy, Denmark, Canada, Tunisia, India, Poland, Israel, Scotland, Greece and Germany suggest that there has been a decline, or sperm parameters are impaired in young populations (Adamopoulos et al, 1996;Younglai et al, 1998;Bilotta et al, 1999;Almagor et al, 2003;Vicari et al, 2003;Jørgensen et al, 2006;Sripada et al, 2007;Adiga et al, 2008;Paasch et al, 2008;Horak et al, 2008;Feki et al, 2009). Conversely, other reports from US, Japan, Korea, Sweden, Spain, Israel and Czech Republic showed no significant evidence of deterioration in sperm quality (Fisch et al, 1996;Paulsen et al, 1996;Benshushan et al, 1997;Berling & Wölner-Hanssen, 1997;Andolz et al, 1999;Seo et al, 2000;Itoh et al, 2001;Zvĕrina et al, 2002).…”

The quality of semen among a sample of young, healthy men from Lower Silesia (AndroLS)

“…In contrast to Czech citizens, motile sperm were found in 68-82% of Germans vs. only 56% of Poles [7].…”

“…Paderewskiego 35, 51-612 Wrocław, Poland, tel. +48 71 347 3361, fax +48 71 347 3034, e-mail: jozkow@gmail.com  PRACE ORYGINALNE the presence of a west-east gradient in the quality of sperm across Europe, with higher sperm parameters in men from Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania and lower parameters in men living in Denmark, Germany, and Norway [6][7][8]. At the same time, sperm characteristics may reveal geographic variety even within one country [9][10][11].…”

“…The abolition of compulsory military conscription/draft in the majority of European countries has limited access to young, male populations. However, several andrological surveys are biased by being confined to subjects recruited either by infertility clinics/andrology units or by being financially rewarded [7,9,13].…”

Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and pubertal development in sons. A follow‐up study of a birth cohort

“…Cigarette smoke consists of toxic components, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nicotine and its metabolite cotinine, that cross the placenta and appear to be potential endocrine disrupters (MacKenzie & Angevine, 1981;Jauniaux et al, 1999). Maternal cigarette smoking has been associated with subfecundity, measured as longer time to pregnancy (Olsen et al, 1983;Weinberg et al, 1989;Jensen et al, 1998Jensen et al, , 2006 and impaired semen quality (Storgaard et al, 2003;Jensen et al, 2004Jensen et al, , 2005Ramlau-Hansen et al, 2007;Paasch et al, 2008) in the male offspring. During recent years, studies have focused on whether prenatal exposure to cigarette smoking affects sexual maturation, and, although conflicting results have been published (Fried et al, 2001;Windham et al, 2008), age of menarche may be accelerated in girls exposed to cigarette smoking in foetal life (Windham et al, 2004;Rubin et al, 2009;Shrestha et al, 2011).…”