Combined effects of obesity, alcohol and smoking habit on semen quality of 2483 men attending an andrology clinic

MARTINI AC; TISSERA A; VINCENTI LM; ESTOFÁN D; BELTRAMONE F; SAD J; RUIZ RD; FIOL DE CUNEO M; MOLINA R

Sevilla

Congreso; V Congreso Internacional de Medicina Reproductiva; 2013

Several factors have been identified as detrimental for sperm physiology (i.e. tobacco, alcohol, obesity, endocrine disruptors, etc); however, none of them can justify seminal decline by itself. Therefore, the objective of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the combined effects of obesity and tobacco and/or alcohol consumption on semen quality of men who attended an andrology laboratory in Argentine. Patients (n=2483) were not azoospermic and had no history of toxin exposure (pesticides, radiations, etc), genitourinary diseases or surgeries. Data were analyzed by MANCOVA, with age and abstinence as co-variables and as factors: body mass index (BMI) [normal (20≤BMI<25), overweight (25≤BMI<30) or obese (BMI>30)], tobacco [non-smoker or smoker] and alcohol consumption [non-drinker, moderate-drinker (1 glass/day) and heavy-drinker (2 to 5 glasses/day)]. The combined effects of obesity and heavy-drinking habit significantly (p=0.0024) diminished semen volume (2.1±0.3ml, n=22) in contrast to the other groups (obese non-drinkers: 3.0±0.1ml, n=395; normal non-drinkers 3.2±0.2ml, n=77) with significantly higher values for the normal moderate-drinkers group (3.8±0.2ml, n=55). Similar results were observed for total sperm count (p=0.0088), yielding the lowest values in obese drinker patients (obese heavy-drinkers: 92.2±29.5sperm/ejaculate, n=22) and the highest values in normal moderate/non-drinkers (223.4±18.6sperm/ejaculate, n=55 and 161.3±8.76 sperm/ejaculate, n=647 respectively). Smoking habit did not seriously affect semen quality; nevertheless obese smokers showed longer (p=0.0262) histories of sterility than other groups (obese smokers: 3.2±0.3years, n=98; obese non-smokers: 2.1±0.3years, n=352; normal non-smokers: 2.5±0.2years, n=619). In summary, our results support the hypothesis that semen quality decline is multifactorial.