Exposure to Aluminum May Decrease a Man's Fertility

Could aluminum impact a man's fertility? That may be the case. Scientists have found that human exposure to aluminum may be a significant factor in falling sperm counts and reduced male fertility.

"There has been a significant decline in male fertility, including sperm count, throughout the developed world over the past several decades and previous research has linked this to environmental factors such as endocrine disruptors," said Christopher Exley, a leading authority on human exposure to aluminum and the lead researcher, in a news release.

In order to see whether aluminum could be impacting fertility, the researchers examined semen from 62 donors. After measuring the aluminum content of the semen, they found the mean content itself to be very high-339 ppb. In addition, the aluminum content of semen from several of the donors was in excess of 500 ppb. More specifically, the scientists used fluorescence microscopy and found the presence of aluminum in semen and even found aluminum inside individual sperm.

What was truly interesting, though, was that there was a statistically significant inverse relationship between aluminum content of semen and the sperm count. In other words, the higher the aluminum content was, the lower the sperm count was-and vice versa.

"Human exposure to aluminum has increased significantly over the same time period and our observation of significant contamination of male semen by aluminum must implicate aluminum as a potential contributor to these changes in reproductive fertility," said Exley.

These findings are especially important to note when it comes to the study of fertility. This could reveal a possible reason why some couples have difficulty becoming pregnant. By potentially limiting exposure to aluminum, men can possibly increase their reproductive fertility. That said, more research needs to be conducted in order to better understand how aluminum impacts a male's fertility.

The findings are published in the journal Reproductive Toxicology.