Christian George
Findings have revealed that men are 60 percent more responsible for infertility than women.
A fertility scientist, Dr Shanna Swan asserted that this could pose a “global existential crisis.”
US Population Reference Bureau’s 2021 Data Sheet has it that fertile growth has dwindled in many countries not excluding low, middle, and high-income nations.
The World Health Organization has also affirmed the decrease in counts and quality of spermatozoa.
According to a report by Daily Post, this has given rise to the revision of the criteria for normal versus abnormal sperm counts to be used by andrology laboratories worldwide.
Normal sperm count ranges from 15 million sperm per millilitre to 200 million per millilitre. The WHO deems a rate below 15 million as low.
Scientists have affirmed that aside from men being responsible for more infertility, it alters a man’s ability to make children as well as increases his mortality risk.
A study by Stanford University revealed that infertile men die younger than their fertile peers.
Men with sperm concentration lower than 15 million per millilitre had a 50 percent greater chance of being hospitalised for any medical reason at all, and poor fertility has been linked with higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and cancers.
Root causes of infertility in men include smoking, alcohol intake, drugs, obesity, past or present testicular infections, exposure to environmental toxins, exposure of the testicles to excessive heat, hormonal disorders, testicular trauma, and ejaculatory/erectile disorders, among others.
Also, scientists from Nigerian Universities classified causes of infertility in men into physiological or biological, behavioural or lifestyle, environmental, and socio-demographic.
Dr. Ajayi Abayomi, the Medical Director of Nordica Fertility Clinic, Abuja, said, “Well, I am aware of them and would say they are authentic. A study about two years ago looked at America and Europe and said that sperm count has reduced in the last forty years by 50%.
‘Also, we conducted research in our clinics; we have clinics in Lagos, Abuja, and Asaba. We looked at 10 years apart the sperm parameters of men who presented in our clinics, and we saw a 30% decline in the sperm of men who showed up in our clinics in Nigeria.”