Data suggests that male fertility has been declining for over 50 years. Epidemiological studies show that sperm counts have decreased by over 50% since 1973. This leads prominent academics like Shanna Swan to say that the “current state of reproductive affairs can’t continue much longer without threatening human survival” (Swan, 2022).
Is your ability to father a child threatened? It may not be surprising that the answer to that is that it depends. In particular, it depends on a bunch of lifestyle factors, environmental factors, and your exposure to microplastics when you were a foetus.
Reducing time to pregnancy
Thankfully, research shows that modifiable factors have a big influence on the health of your sperm. This means that you can focus on improving your lifestyle and reduce the time it takes for you and your partner to conceive.
Research shows that couples in which the male partner has a low sperm concentration, defined as below 20 million sperm per ml, have a 32% lower chance of achieving pregnancy within six months compared to couples where the male partner has a normal sperm concentration (Slama, 2002).
It takes about 60 to 70 days for sperm to be created. This means that you can improve your lifestyle, reset your sperm production, and relatively quickly increase your fertility.
This Bacchus, the Roman god for wine and fertility. Readers might be pleased to know the Roman god possessed scientific clairvoyance: currently there is no strong evidence that alcohol is bad for male fertility. This is naturally not an endorsement for alcohol consumption, since it’s bad for you in many other ways.
Transgenerational Epige-what?
Paternal pre-conception health is a term that we should use more frequently. And not only because it makes a speedy conception more likely, but because it affects the long-term health of your child.
Epigenetics, the layer on top of genetics, can activate or suppress gene expressions through DNA switches, providing a mechanism for lifestyle and environmental factors to influence DNA.
Since your children will inherit your DNA and epigenome, the way you live your life may impact the health of your—yet—unborn child (and even your grandchildren…). Let’s back this up.
Take overeating. A Swedish epidemiological study, the Överkalix study, found that fathers who are exposed to an excess of food pass on a decreased life expectancy due to increased risks of mortality from heart disease or diabetes (Schagdarsurengin and Steger, 2016). Smoking, too, is a big culprit. For instance, paternal pre-conception smoking is associated with increased risk of childhood leukaemia (Cao et al., 2020).
Canary in the coal mine
Even if having children is not top of your mind (or on your mind at all), you might be interested in your fertility status. In particular, the health of your sperm is known as the sixth vital sign. Shanna Swan (2022) writes:
This much is clear: a man’s semen quality can tell him something about his health risks. On the upside, men with high-quality semen have a longer life expectancy and a decreased incidence of a wide range of diseases compared to their peers with infertility. […] Simply put, having abundant sperm supply is associated with better health for men—virility on multiple fronts.
Your sperm health a canary in the coal mine. Poor sperm health is likely an indicator of other health issues. Inversely, improving your sperm health effectively implies improving overall health.
What can you do?
Naturally, you should sign up for Zijn Health. We will take you on a personalised journey to improve your fertility—whether you want to father a child or not. In the process, you learn about lifestyle habits that promote fertility. We help you to implement and monitor these habits and stick to them.
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