Being overweight reduces sperm quality

Obviously, obesity reduces sperm quality in men

05/07/2011

According to a study by the French Eylau-Unilabs laboratory in Paris, sperm quality decreases as a result of body fat gain. The higher the total weight, the lower the sperm quality.

Obese men seem to be more likely than previously thought to be infertile. At the International Fertility Conference in Stockholm, physicians presented a study in which it was demonstrated that the quality of sperm decreases, the higher a man's body weight. To establish this context, the scientists evaluated the samples of about 2,000 adult men. According to the researchers, such a high number of probands has not yet existed in this context. Thus, the study is the most comprehensive in its field so far. Already conducted studies on the subject were able to establish a connection between women in terms of fertility and weight. An older study also pointed in the same direction.

Paul Cohen-Bacrie reported at the conference that body weight gain not only produces fewer sperm cells but also slows them down and has a shorter lifespan. The researchers suspect that obesity disturbs the body's own hormone system. According to this, overweight men have on average ten percent less sperm. Those who suffer from obesity are even a good 20 percent less. As a measure of obesity, the physicians used the so-called body mass index (BMI), which sets the body weight of a person in relation to his height.

A 2004 study by the University of Southern Denmark came to a similar conclusion. There, too, body weight and sperm consistency were checked. Overweight people had a spermidine concentration 24 percent lower than normal people. If the men reduced their body weight, the quality improved. Around 1,500 men from Amsterdam and Aalborg took part in this study. (Sb)

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Image: Thommy Weiss