sperm count

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Microplastics in Testicles May Be Affecting Sperm
There Are Likely
Microplastics in
Your Testicles
NEW STUDY
May 21, 2024 9:40 AM CDT

There Are Likely Microplastics in Your Testicles

Discovery suggests microplastics can breach special blood barrier, impact sperm counts

(Newser) - Tiny plastic particles have reached parts of our bodies once thought impossible, including placentas and breast milk and, as researchers show in a new study, every human testicle analyzed. The discovery, researchers say, could help explain why sperm counts are declining around the world. Microplastics were discovered in all the...

Researchers Sound Alarm on Dropping Male Sperm Counts

There's been a 52% drop in sperm counts over the last 40 years

(Newser) - The Western man's sperm count just isn't what it used to be. In what the Washington Post calls the largest and most comprehensive look into the matter, an international team of researchers reports in the journal Human Reproductive Update that after analyzing 185 previous studies involving 42,000...

How Tightie Whities Kill Sperm Counts

Laptops, cycling, saunas can also affect sperm for the same reason

(Newser) - Worried about how modern life affects human sperm, both in quantity and quality? You're not alone: Ideas have been circulating that things like underwear, laptops, cycling, and weight kill off or weaken sperm. So Five Thirty-Eight starts off by tackling the tight-underwear issue: A 2012 study looked at five...

To Boost Sperm Count, Get Off the Couch

Exercise increases sperm count: new study

(Newser) - Want a higher sperm count? Get off the couch and start working out. A new Harvard University study found that college-aged men who often exercise have as much as 73% more sperm than their lazier peers, Bloomberg reports. Specifically, those who worked out more than 14 hours a week had...

New Home Test Checks Sperm Count

It's the first kit to win FDA approval

(Newser) - If you've ever questioned your sperm count but weren't thrilled with the idea of dropping by a clinic, worry no longer: For the first time, you can get an FDA-approved home test. The $30 to $40 SpermCheck Fertility Home Sperm Test, available at CVS.com and Walgreens.com,...

Contraceptive Sperm Zap in the Works

Sound waves in sensitive area cut sperm production

(Newser) - Researchers say they have found what could be a cheap, reliable, and long-lasting form of male birth control, although it involves zapping the testicles with ultrasound. A study on rats found that sound waves slowed sperm production to levels that would cause infertility in humans, making ultrasound a "promising...

Space Travel May Make It Harder to Have Kids

Sperm, egg counts fall in lab animals

(Newser) - If you’re intent on having kids, you might want to cancel that vacation to Mars you’ve got penciled in. Research from a University of Kansas biologist suggests that long-term space travel might leave people “reproductively compromised,” the Kansas City Star reports. In tests on space-traveling and...

Cycling May Take Toll on Sperm Quality

(Newser) - Men who train vigorously on bicycles have low sperm quality verging on infertility, LiveScience reports. A recent study of Spanish triathletes found that those who rode more than 180 miles a week saw the percentage of healthy sperm drop from a group average of 10% to 4%. “We found...

More Sex Makes Stronger Sperm, Cuts Infertility

Men's sperm quality improves with daily ejaculation, study finds

(Newser) - Having sex every day improves sperm quality and can improve a couple's chances of conception, an Australian fertility specialist finds. Eight in 10 men with fertility problems showed less damaged DNA and more mobility in their sperm after 7 days, the BBC reports. The study recommended men "keep the...

Soy-Based Foods Might Be Reducing Sperm Count

Western men consuming more of cheap protein; effect worst on those with low count

(Newser) - Soy-based foods could be the root of lower sperm counts in men, a new study finds. Men who consumed more than two portions of soy-based foods a week had, on average, 41 million fewer sperm per milliliter of semen than men who avoided such products. The cheap source of protein...

Men Less Fertile After 40: Study

Biological clock ticking as men age

(Newser) - Men apparently have a biological fertility clock that ticks just as inexorably as that of women, reports Agence France Presse. New research reveals that a man's ability to impregnate a partner drops significantly once he reaches 40, regardless of his sperm count. It's the first clinical proof that a man's...

Are You Hanging Up on Fertility?
Are You Hanging Up on Fertility?
Feb 25, 2008 3:00 PM CST

Are You Hanging Up on Fertility?

Study finds link between cellphones and infertility

(Newser) - Men may want to be sure their unlimited minutes include calls to the urologist, USA Today reports, because a new study shows a possible link between cellphone use and male infertility. Researchers split 361 men under 40 into groups divided by amount of daily cell use and found the 4-plus-hours...

12 Stories