Eating Fruits and Vegetables Sprayed with Pesticides May Impact a Man's Fertility

It turns out that pesticides may affect male fertility. Scientists have found that men who eat more fruit and vegetables that were treated with pesticides have lower sperm counts and percentages of normally-formed sperm.

Previous studies have shown that occupational exposure to pesticides might have an effect on semen quality, but so far there has been little investigation of the effects of pesticides on diet. That's why the researchers analyzed 338 semen samples from 155 men attending a fertility center between 2007 and 2012. Their diets were assessed via a questionnaire, and they were asked how often, on average, they had consumed how many portions of fruit and vegetables.

The fruit and vegetables were then categorized as being high, moderate or low in pesticide residues based on data from the annual United States Department of Agriculture Pesticide Data Program.

It turns out that the group of men with the highest intake of pesticide-heavy fruit and vegetables had an average total sperm count of 86 million sperm per ejaculate compared to men eating the least, who had an average of 171 million sperm per ejaculate, which was a 49 percent reduction. The percentage of normally formed sperm was an average 7.5 percent in men in the group with the lowest intake and just 5.1 percent in men with the highest intake, which was a 32 percent decrease.

"These findings should not discourage the consumption of fruit and vegetables in general," said Jorge Chavarro, one of the researchers, in a news release. "In fact, we found that total intake of fruit and vegetables was completely unrelated to semen quality. This suggests that implementing strategies specifically targeted at avoiding pesticide residues, such as consuming organically-grown produce or avoiding produce known to have large amounts of residues, may be the way to go."

The findings reveal what may cause some men to be less fertile than others; it turns out diet has a crucial role. Dietary exposure to pesticides could be adversely impacting semen quality in men.

The findings are published in the journal Human Reproduction.

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