The quality of French sperm has declined significantly over the past sixteen years. Mainly in agricultural regions where the use of pesticides is frequent.
No matter where they live, all French people are affected by a drop in the quality of their sperm! According to a study published on Monday, February 24 in review Reproduction, the sperm concentration would have undergone a continuous decline of the order of 1.9% per year, to ultimately lose about a third of its sperm concentration in metropolitan France, between 1989 and 2005. As a result, the number of spermatozoa d A 35-year-old man has gone from 73.6 million per milliliter of semen in 1989 to 49.9 M / ml on average in 2005. However, even if this trend spares virtually no territory, certain regions are more affected.
Agricultural regions
After carrying out a first study on the subject in December 2012 on more than 26,600 men, Dr Joëlle Le Moal and his colleagues from the Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS) refined their results at the regional level. They indicate that the drop in the quality of men’s sperm would affect Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrénées more.
To explain this trend, the researchers believe their results are linked to the highly agricultural nature of these two regions. “Wine-growing activities are those where the most pesticides are used in proportion to the surface”, explains Joëlle Le Moal. To explain this phenomenon on the whole of the territory, she mentions “a global exposure (…) of the whole population since the 1950s” to endocrine disruptors, in particular certain pesticides. As such, Burgundy is also strongly affected.
Conversely, Brittany and Franche-Comté are doing well and have seen the opposite trend. There, the quality of sperm improved over the period studied. Likewise, Pays de la Loire also shows an improving trend. Finally, Auvergne and Languedoc-Roussillon are the regions where the sperm concentration has experienced the most positive development.
The quality of French sperm within WHO standards
In the end, scientists from InVS recall that it is “very important to monitor the quality of sperm internationally now that we have data on its degradation in France. It is precisely the object of a Hurgent network launched by InVS at the end of 2013 at European level. “For the moment, French sperm concentrations remain on average within the fertile standard of the World Health Organization (greater than 15 million / ml)”, conclude these scientists.
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