Low sperm counts could lead to birth defects
The average sperm count of the American male is dropping, and at an alarming rate.
According to Mark Castleman, managing editor of Medical Self-Care, the proportion of men who have 100 million sperm per milliliter of semen has dropped from 80 percent in 1929 to 22 percent in 1977, and it is not entirely known why.
While the media often said the lowered sperm count might be related to a society-wide increase in sexual activity or the use of tight-fitting underwear, Florida State University professor Robert C. Dougherty suggested that toxic chemicals were the main cause of the sperm count decrease. He found high levels of four toxins in semen samples taken from 132 student volunteers: polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), DDT, hexachlorobenzene (all known carcinogens) and teratogens (known to cause birth defects). The most frequent sperm count of the students was 20 million per milliliter; a sperm count below that number indicates fertility problems.
What causes this toxic exposure, and why are sperm so susceptible to these toxins? Carcinogens (cancer causing substances) cause tumors most quickly in tissues composed of rapidly dividing cells, and the cells that divide most in adult men are those involved in sperm production.
Chemical pesticides and herbicides have been linked to sperm depletion, as well as other manmade chemicals such as plutonium (which is carried in detectable amounts by all living people today), as well as the synthetic estrogen DES that was added to about 80% of the animal feed produced in the US from the 1950s to 1980. The nausea combatant drug Phenobarbital, if taken during pregnancy, has been found to cause birth defects in the offspring of the children who were born while the mothers were taking the drug.
Also, many antibiotics such as penicillin and tetracycline suppress sperm production. Smoking, tobacco or marijuana, has also been found to reduce sperm counts, regular intake of caffeine, and consumption of soy products may have sperm- and offspring-damaging impacts
What are some of the effects of low sperm counts? Evidence suggests that men with low sperm counts are more likely to produce offspring with birth defects. It has been noted that artificial insemination of women with frozen sperm from third-party donors results in a birth defect rate of 1percent or less, as opposed to the overall American birth defect rate of 4.5 – 6 percent. The most important reason for that decline in birth defect rates is that artificial insemination laboratories accept only men with high sperm counts.