NEW DELHI, India (NNN-Bernama) -- Indian men are facing a queer problem of having reduced sperm count and sub-optimal sperm quality.
Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said Friday that studies are showing that
not only is infertility increasing among Indian men, their sperm count and sperm
quality too is taking a beating due to "xenobiotics emanating from chemical
industries".
"The government has taken steps to curb environmental pollution to check
this problem," the Times of India reported quoting Ghulam.
Doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had earlier
found that while the sperm count of a healthy Indian adult male used to be 60
million per ml around three decades ago, it now stands at around 20 million per
ml.
The study found that the majority of men who were exposed to high temperature at their workplace — welders, dyers, blast furnace workers and those employed in cement and steel factories — were more prone to infertility, said the report.
This is because the additional environmental heat increases the temperature of the scrotum, causing a negative effect on sperm production.
Over 12 to 18 million couples in India are diagnosed with infertility every year.
AIIMS doctors say a one-degree elevation in testicular temperature leads to 14 per cent depression of spermatogenesis.
The normal temperature of the testes is three degrees fewer than the core body temperature (37 degrees Celsius or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
"Not only has quantity of sperm production declined in males across the world, there has been a decrease in motility (sperm movement) and morphology
(shape and structure) of the sperms.
There has been a two per cent decrease in quality of male sperm annually.
Also, 40 per cent men in reproductive age group are presently recording a quantitative and qualitative decline in sperm quality. Stress also decreases the hormones that stimulate spermatogenesis, said Dr Rima Dada from AIIMS.
IVF expert Dr Sonia Malik recently conducted a 10-year comparison study on
sperm quality and quantity (2000-2001 to 2010-2011) in Southend Fertility and
IVF Centre.
According to her study, the percentage of semen ejaculation, which is considered less than normal (below 4 ml), increased from 34 per cent to 65 per cent and most suitable ejaculation volume (more than 4ml) went down from 15 per cent to 3 per cent.
As far as morphology of sperm was concerned, in 2000-2001, 26 per cent of
the sperms showed above 60 per cent normality, whereas in 2000-2011 this was
reduced to 7 per cent.
Dr Sonia also said: "Over the past 50 years, expansion of the chemicals has resulted in the release of a plethora of xenobiotics (molecules foreign to biological systems) into the environment leading to male infertility."
A 10-year survey by AIIMS of 1,000 men from north India found that lifestyle factors like increased obesity, hot tub dips and long visits to sauna, intensive gardening and farming resulting in pesticide exposure were major causes for the ever decreasing sperm count. --NNN-BERNAMA
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