Decrease in the seminal quality of Cordobans in the last twenty years: possible causal effects.

RAMÍREZ ND; MOLINA R; TISSERA A; TORRES PJ; LUQUE EM; MANGEAUD A; MARTINI AC

Jornada; XXII Jornada de Investigación de la Facultad de Ciencias Médicas; 2021

Worldwide, around 15% of the couples suffer from infertility; male factor has been linked to more than 50% of the cases. Several studies from different countries have tried to detect temporal trends in semen quality, reaching controversial findings. Only a few of them aimed to establish an association between trends in semen quality and possible explicative factors. The aim of this observational descriptive study was to analyze the possible variation in seminal quality during the last 20 years (2011 to 2020), evaluating 23130 semen samples from patients attending an andrology center (Laboratorio de Andrología y Reproducción ?LAR-), and to identify possible explicative lifestyle and/or environmental factors.After the sign of the informed consent, all the patients attending to LAR were recluted. Those with age or abstinence out of the range (20-60 years and 2-7 days respectively) were excluded. The 20 years period was divided in four subperiods of five years each (P1-P4). Data of semen analysis, body mass index and lifestyle/environmental factors were evaluated by Chi square test and logistic regression. We found a significant increase (p<0.05) in the frequencies of asthenozoospermia (P125.02% vs.P436.39%), teratozoospermia (P130.25% vs.P345.55%) and patients with both abnormalities (P111.59% vs.P418.99%); and decreased frequencies in the percentages of nuclear maturity (P154,65% vs.P413,02%) and membrane integrity abnormalities (HOST:P16,11% vs.P41,98%, respectively) (p<0,05). In addition, we found significant increases (p<0.05) in the frequencies of varicocele, especially varicocele grade 1 (P110,00% vs.P443,87%) and surgically treated (P17,02% vs.P430,02%), exposure to toxics (i.e agrochemichal, heat, etc) (P12,11% vs. P411,55%), smoking > 10 cigarettes/day (P13,24% vs.P44,66%), drinking 1-2 glasses of alcohol/day (P111,52% vs.P448,34%), and obesity (P118,20% vs.P423,22%). Toxic exposition, obesity and varicocele were significantly associated (p<0.05) with high frequencies of astenozoospermia, teratozoospermia y oligoastenoteratozoospermia. In agreement with previous studies, a moderate alcohol consumption (1-2 glasses/day) was significantly associated with low frequencies of nuclear maturity and HOST abnormalities (p<0,05).In summary, seminal quality declined during the last 20 years, in concordance with an increase in the frequencies of exposure to risk factor. On the other hand, moderate alcohol consumption showed a protective association with some seminal parameters.