Sperm counts in the West plunge by 60% in 40 years as ‘modern life’ damages men’s health

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “Sperm count and other semen parameters have been plausibly associated with multiple environmental influences, including endocrine disrupting chemicals, pesticides, heat and lifestyle factors, including diet, stress, smoking and body-mass index,” the paper said. Our report of a continuing and robust decline should, therefore, trigger research into its causes, aiming for prevention.” One of the team, Professor Shanna Swan, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, said falling sperm counts had been “of great concern” since they were first noticed about 25 years ago. He said by including a large number of studies from around the world the researchers had been able to “confirm that the decline in sperm counts is likely to be ‘real’”. “Research efforts to identify these causes need to be redoubled and to be non-presumptive as to cause.” Professor Sharpe said that across Northern Europe today more than 15 per cent of young men had a sperm count low enough to “impair their fertility”.