According to an American study, infertile men have a higher risk of dying prematurely than others. For the authors, infertility is due to pre-existing health problems.
Men who are infertile due to the quality of their sperm seem to have an increased risk of dying prematurely compared to others! This is the astonishing conclusion of an American study conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Unpublished results published this Friday in the scientific journal Human Reproduction.
A risk of premature mortality doubled
To reach this conclusion, Prof. Michael Eisenberg and his colleagues at Stanford’s Male Reproduction Unit examined the medical records of 12,000 men between the ages of 20 and 50 who visited an infertility center. This over two successive periods of eight years each time. 1994-2011 for those who visited Stanford Hospital & Clinics, and 1989-2009 for those treated by Baylor College of Medicine (Houston). Several abnormalities in the quality of the sperm of patients have been identified. Among them, defects in the volume of total sperm, the number of spermatozoa, or the motility and shape of these reproductive cells (gametes).
Then, looking at data from the National Death Index and the U.S. Social Security’s Death Index, scientists believe they can claim that men with two or more abnormalities in their semen were more than twice as likely to die prematurely than other men. “We were able to determine with over 90% accuracy who died during this follow-up period,” Eisenberg said. And the latter added that the higher the number of abnormalities, the higher the risk rate of premature mortality.
To explain these results, the researchers put forward a track. Infertility could be caused by general pre-existing health problems. According to Prof. Eisenberg, “If we follow this hypothesis, the real cause of the increased risk of mortality would not be infertility per se, but these pre-existing health problems. ”
In conclusion, they call for new studies to be carried out by exploring this avenue. On the genetic, hormonal or developmental factors of infertility for example. “Is their blood pressure high?” What is their blood sugar level? We are starting to collect all this prospective data now, thanks to a collaboration between several centers in the United States and Canada, ”he concludes.
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