Understanding semen quality and sperm count could be key to knowing how long a man will live, according to Danish doctors and scientists.
After studying samples from almost 80,000 men provided to a fertility clinic over five decades, the Copenhagen University Hospital team found that those with a “total motile sperm count of more than 120 million” could expect to see their lifespans shoot up by almost three years compared to men with a lower count.
The team’s research, published in the Oxford University Press science journal Human Reproduction, found that men with the upper-end sperm count could expect to live 80.3 years, compared to 77.6 years among men with a “total motile count of 0-5 million”.
“Previous research has suggested that male infertility and lower semen quality could be associated with mortality,” said study lead author Lærke Priskorn.
“We conducted this study to test the hypothesis, and at the same time, get an absolute estimate of how much semen quality predicts a man’s lifespan and to understand whether diagnosed diseases prior to semen quality assessment might explain some of the reported association,” she explained.
The findings suggest a possible link between low sperm counts and semen quality with declining health in later life.
“We need to better understand the association between semen quality and men’s general health,” said consultant andrologist Dr Niels Jørgensen, who added in a statement published by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology that more research is needed.
Further analysis could be done to “identify subgroups of men with impaired semen quality who are apparently healthy when their semen quality is assessed, but who are at increased risk of developing certain diseases later in life”, according to Dr Jørgensen. – dpa
