Men with better sperm quality may live longer, new study

Men with agile sperm may live longer than those with poor swimmers, finds a new study. The large study observed nearly 80,000 men for up to 50 years and found that men with a total number of motile sperm (sperm that can move or ‘swim’) of more than 120 million could expect to live two to three years longer compared to men with a total motile sperm count of between 0 and 5 million. The largest study published in Human Reproduction, was led by Dr Lærke Priskorn, a senior researcher, and Dr. Niels Jørgensen, chief andrologist, both working at the Department of Growth and Reproduction at Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark. To investigate the connection between sperm quality and longevity, researchers analyzed data from 78,284 men who underwent semen analysis at Copenhagen's public laboratory between 1965 and 2015 due to reported couple infertility. The semen volume, sperm concentration, and the proportion of sperm that were motile and a normal shape were analyzed during this assessment. The researchers used the data contained in unique Danish national registers, to see how many died from any cause, during the follow-up period. Out of the group, 8,600 men (11%) had died. Among them, 59,657 had given semen samples between 1987 and 2015, providing more details like education level and medical history from the past 10 years.“Previous research has suggested that male infertility and lower semen quality could be associated with mortality. 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,” Dr. Priskorn said in a statement.“We calculated the men’s life expectancy according to their semen quality and found that men with the best quality could expect to live two to three years longer, on average, than men with the lowest semen quality. In absolute terms, men with a total motile count of more than 120 million lived 2.7 years longer than men with a total motile count of between 0 and 5 million. The lower the semen quality, the lower the life expectancy. This association was not explained by any diseases in the ten years before semen quality assessment or the men’s educational level.”The researchers think that diminished semen quality may be an indicator of one’s overall health, along with fertility.“We need to better understand the association between semen quality and men’s general health. However, this study suggests that we can 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. Thus, fertility evaluations, which are typically conducted when the men are relatively young, would serve as an opportunity for detecting and mitigating the risks of other health problems in the longer term. In the current study, we did not analyze whether poor semen quality was associated with earlier deaths from particular causes, such as cancer or heart disease, and this is something we will be studying in the future. Using other groups of men, we will also try to identify relevant biomarkers that can identify subgroups of men at increased risk. This is key to initiating relevant prevention strategies,” Dr. Jørgensen said.(Pic courtesy: iStock)