Sperm Abnormalities may Increase Mortality Risk in Men

Men who are infertile due to defective semen may be at an increased risk of dying sooner, according to researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The study authors found that men with two or more abnormalities in their semen were twice as likely to die within an eight-year period as those who had normal specimens. However, the overall mortality risk for all men in the study was quite low, at less than 1 percent.

Various factors can increase the risk of sperm abnormalities, including diet, medication and certain genetic components. Lead study author Michael Eisenberg, MD, PhD, assistant professor of urology and Stanford's director of male reproductive medicine and surgery notes that smoking and diabetes can specifically increase the risk of male reproductive issues and overall mortality rates. "But here we're seeing the same doubled risk with male infertility, which is relatively understudied," he noted, via Medscape. 

The study is one of the first to directly address a link between abnormal sperm and increased morality rates.

For the study, researchers examined the records of men 20 to 50 who had visited one of two centers to be evaluated for possible infertility.

"We were able to determine with better than 90 percent accuracy who died during that follow-up time," Eisenberg said, via Live Science. "There was an inverse relationship. In the years following their evaluation, men with poor semen quality had more than double the mortality rate of those who didn't."

"It's plausible that, even though we didn't detect it, infertility may be caused by pre-existing general health problems," he added, via the news organization. "The true cause of increased mortality risk, then, would be not infertility per se, but those health problems."

"But we controlled for this factor as best we could, and while that did attenuate the measured risk somewhat, there seems to be something else going on. Could it be genetic, developmental or hormonal factors? Or could it be that something about the experience of having and raising kids - even though you may sometimes feel like they're killing you - actually lowers mortality?"

More findings regarding the study will be available online in the journal Human Reproduction.