Men with better sperm quality may live longer lives, according to a new study.
Researchers analysed data from nearly 80,000 Danish men with a follow-up of up to 50 years.
The men had had their semen quality assessed in the laboratory due to couple infertility.
The analysis looked at semen volume, sperm concentration, and the proportion of motile sperm – meaning sperm that moved efficiently – and had a normal shape.
Those with a higher number of motile sperm had a life expectancy that was two to three years longer than men with the lowest number of motile sperm, according to the findings published in the journal Human Reproduction.
“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 zero and five million,” Dr Lærke Priskorn, a senior researcher at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark and the study’s lead author, said in a statement.
“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,” she added.
A potential health indicator for men
One hypothesis to explain the link is that semen quality could work as an indicator of men’s overall health.
Previous research cited by the team found that men with a lower sperm concentration were also hospitalised seven years earlier on average, “underlining that men with impaired semen quality as a group not only can expect to die earlier but also to live fewer healthy years”.
“The current findings corroborate and add to the limited albeit growing body of research showing that semen quality is an important marker of current health and likely predictive of future health across the lifespan,” Dr Germaine Buck Louis, dean of the College of Health at George Mason University in the US, told Euronews Health in an email.
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The typical vital signs measuring the body’s basic functions are temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation.
“Greater clinical awareness is evolving and has prompted some authors to call for semen quality being considered the 6th vital sign,” the expert, who was not involved in the study, added.
The study does not identify the underlying causes of the difference in life expectancy, but Louis said that “environmental exposures may be responsible, possibly through oxidative stress pathways, as they affect both reproductive health and health, more globally”.
“Without knowing the exact causes of the infertility and the cell functions affected, it is difficult to develop medical interventions or new drugs to treat the problem(s),” Dolores Lamb, co-director of the research learning centre at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, a hospital in the US, told Euronews Health.
“The common link between infertility and the increased health risks of men with infertility is currently under active research investigation,” Lamb added.
