Post Date December, 03 2023
The modern lifestyle has brought new 'killers' to male fertility issues, "Shen Guoqiu, deputy director of the Reproductive Center at Wuhan General Hospital of the Guangzhou Military Region, said anxiously in an interview
40% of infertility problems occur in husbands
In the 1970s, the qualified standard for sperm was 150 million sperm per milliliter, and now 20 million sperm per milliliter is considered "qualified"
The "little tadpoles" inside a man's body are not only a barometer of male reproductive health, but also an indispensable "seed" for giving birth to the next generation.
20 million is already the bottom line, it's difficult to conceive even if it's too low, "Li Jun, director of the urology department at Wuhan Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, told reporters. In the 1970s, the number of sperm per milliliter of semen in men was 150 million to qualify; Now, if the number of sperm per milliliter of semen is 20 million, it is considered a "pass".
The Institute of Science and Technology of the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China conducted a study on sperm analysis data from a total of 11726 people in 39 cities and counties from 1981 to 1996, and found that the quality of semen in Chinese men is decreasing at a rate of 1% per year, with a decrease of over 40% in sperm count. The higher the level of modernization, the faster the decline in sperm quality.
In addition to a decrease in quantity, the quality of sperm also shows a downward trend. Shen Guoqiu told us that whether a "little tadpole" is truly healthy and strong depends on three items: sperm count, sperm morphology, and motility (agile and regular "swimming" ability). Nowadays, few men can achieve a "Grand Slam" in these three events, and even achieving a "perfect score" in a single event is difficult. As long as 60% of the sperm is normal in all projects, it is already quite good.
At the same time, it is also worth noting that the decrease in sperm quality has shown a trend towards younger age. In recent years, there have been frequent reports from multiple sperm banks across the country that the quality of college students' sperm, once considered a "sperm rich mine," is worrying. Not only is the quantity not up to standard, but the vitality is also declining. A family planning research institute once publicly collected sperm in universities, but unexpectedly, less than 50 of the 400 college student volunteers who came to donate sperm were qualified.
'Killing the Black Hand' Everywhere
An unhealthy lifestyle is the culprit. Due to the high work pressure of men, they often have conditions such as sitting more and moving less, irregular diet, and insufficient sleep, which have become the main reasons for the decline in male sperm quality. Li Jun pointed out that young people nowadays generally prefer nocturnal activities. At two or three o'clock in the morning, bars of all sizes were still bustling and bustling, with each one getting drunk amidst the smoke; Some people just walked out of the bar and shouted to go take a sauna. Little did they know that it was these so-called fashion lifestyles that greatly reduced the fertility of men in their prime.
According to Li Jun, sperm is very "delicate" and can easily "get angry". When exposed to radiation, high temperature, staying up late, drinking alcohol, smoking, sitting for a long time, etc., it will deform, mutate, and even "die". Tobacco and alcohol are both natural enemies of sperm. Foreign studies have long shown that men who smoke more than 30 cigarettes a day experience more than four times more abnormal changes in sperm morphology compared to non-smokers. Drinking alcohol, like smoking, has a killing effect on sperm, which can cause poor sperm development and reduce its vitality.
When men sit in the sauna sweating profusely to "enjoy", they are also exhausting their "energy". Because sperm in the testicles must develop normally in an environment around 35 ℃. The study found that normal men immersed in 43 ℃ hot water for 20 minutes not only reduced sperm motility, but also prevented sperm production.
In fact, what strikes men's pride is often the things that make them proud on the surface, "Shen Guoqiu said. Laptops, cars, and other things are often used by men as symbols of status and success. But research has confirmed that driving continuously for more than 2 hours is enough to cause a decrease in male sperm count. Putting a laptop on your lap for operation, the heat dissipation of the computer will directly increase the temperature of the testicles, inhibit sperm production, and affect their vitality.
