Sperm goes up in smoke - Pollutants, marijuana linked to low fertility

Gareth Manning, Gleaner Reporter

THE
INCREASED use of herbicides and steroids in food and meat production,
as well as the smoking of marijuana are being linked to increasing low
fertility in Jamaican men, health officials have revealed.

According
to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the man is responsible in about
60 per cent of infertile couples. In Jamaica, doctors think the
statistics are similar, with the male factor responsible in about 50
per cent of cases. Worldwide, it is believed that the male sperm count
has decreased by 50 per cent over the past 50 years.

"It
(marijuana) definitely has an effect. There are no studies to confirm
it but it is associated," says professor of reproductive medicine at
the University of the West Indies, Joseph Frederick.

Findings in the US

Professor
Frederick's thoughts are backed by other findings in the United States.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine notes that while studies
on how marijuana affects male fertility are inconclusive, smoking does
in fact lower sperm count and reduces motility. It also increases
abnormalities in sperm shape and function that can lower fertility.

Burn out

A
2003 study by researchers at the University of Buffalo in the United
States also found that frequent marijuana smokers produced less seminal
fluid, a lower total sperm count and their sperm behaved abnormally.
According to the study led by Dr. Lani Burkman, the active compound in
marijuana, tertahydrocannabinol (THC), causes sperm to swim too fast
too early therefore causing it to burn out before it could attach
itself to an egg.

Professor
Frederick, who is also director of the Advanced Fertility and Research
Management Unit, adds that herbicides, which often find their way into
water sources, "tend to have more oestrogen (a female hormone) and that
tends to have an effect on males."

He
says oestrogen can be obtained from several sources including from
steroids that are given to poultry to accelerate their growth.

Medical therapist Dr. Anthony Vendryes says these chemicals act like female hormones in the body.

"They are called endocrine disrupters and are a major cause of male infertility," he states.

Other
lifestyle illnesses, such as diabetes and hypertension, also affect
sperm production in men, as well as injuries to the testicles and the
wearing of close fitting underwear or pants. The latter tends to affect
the temperature at which sperms are produced.

Professor
Frederick posits that certain viruses might also be affecting men. He
theorises that the human Papilloma virus (HPV) for instance, which
causes cervical cancer in women, but is not known to affect men (though
they carry the virus), might be affecting male fertility and might even
be causing early prostate cancer. There are some 200 subtypes of the
HPV.

"Up
to now nobody has said anything as to how it affects males. It could be
very well that a mutant strain may be affecting males in several ways,"
he says. The research, however is yet to be done.

Knowing that one suffers fertility problems can damage a man's ego, likewise his relationship with his spouse.

"In
our environment, males tend to put a lot of emphasis on their prowess
and when a man finds that he has a problem with his sperm count, he is
daunted by the fact that he will go to any limit to get it sorted out,"
comments Professor Frederick.

There
are ways to treat male infertility. According to the professor there
are different types of fertility problems and each one is treated
differently. There are men, for example, who produce no sperm at all
when they ejaculate, while others produce a low percentage or average
number of sperm that cannot swim.

In
the case of the latter, an intrauterine insemination (IUI) can be done,
where the sperms are introduced 40 hours after the woman has ovulated.
Chemical drugs can also be used to increase sperm count, but most cases
end up in assisted conception, where the female is stimulated and her
eggs harvested. It then goes through a process called intracytoplasmic
sperm injection (ICSI), that is injecting the ovary with sperm for it
to be fertilised. After two days the fertilised egg would be placed
back into the female for implantation.

A study is currently being conducted by the Fertility Management Unit to determine the quality of sperm in Jamaican men.

gareth [dot] manning [at] gleanerjm [dot] com