| |
Infertility may be becoming more of a man's than
a woman's problem, new figures suggest. Until now, both were
level pegging - 40% of cases linked to men, 40% to women and
20% to joint problems. However, the European Society for Human
Reproduction and Embryology found rates of an IVF treatment
typically used to help male infertility have risen. It said
a number of factors including declining sperm quality due to
environmental toxins may be involved.
|
| |
2005/06/23
A male problem
Use of ICSI
(intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection), in which a single sperm
is injected into the egg to fertilise
it, made up only 43% of IVF cycles in 1997, but accounted for
52% of cycles in 2002.
There were more than 122,000 ICSI cycles
and nearly 113,000 IVF cycles in 2002, the ESHRE committee
announced at its annual meeting in Copenhagen.
The data came from 24 European countries.
Dr Anders Nyboe Anderson,
coordinator of the committee, said: "We do not really know
why ICSI has become more prevalent. There are probably many
reasons."
It could be that the causes of infertility are shifting.
He added: "We see less and less infertility caused by severe
tubal [fertility tube] problems in women, probably because
of better sexual protection due to the risk of Aids during
the last 15 years."
However he said the data on male subfertility
showed it appeared to be increasing.
Age-related problems
Dr
Anderson said: "Maybe environmental factors are playing an
increasing role as the planet becomes more polluted and factors
that disrupt the endocrine system are in the food chain."
But
he said it was more likely that ICSI was becoming the preferred
method of assisted reproduction, as the technique has improved
since its introduction in the early 1990s.
He said private
clinics tended to use ICSI rather than IVF to improve the chance
of success first time, even though both techniques have the
same take-home-baby rate.
Another theory is that men, like
women, are increasingly putting off starting a family until
they are older, when fertility is lower, Dr Anderson said.
More and more men aged 50-65 are now attending fertility clinics
- men over 40 making up nearly a quarter of consultations,
the study
said.
Impact
In separate research, a team of Canadian scientists
have found damage to DNA in sperm increases with age.
By analysing
the sperm of 2,134 men they found a wide variation in quality
that was linked with age.
DNA damage was far higher in men
over 45 than in younger men - men aged 45 had double the damage
of those younger than 30.
He said data from the US showed that
the birth rate for fathers older than 35 had increased by nearly
20% between 1980 and 1995.
Lead author Dr Sergey Moskotsev,
of the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, told the ESHRE conference: "The
effect of age on male infertility is particularly interesting
because of the growth in the number of men choosing to father
children at older ages.
"The combination of increased female
factor infertility, increased sperm DNA damage, low levels
of DNA repair and increased abnormalities in conventional semen
parameters will have a pronounced impact on their reproductive
potential."
Dr Allan Pacey, Senior Lecturer in Andrology at
the University of Sheffield and Secretary of the British Fertility
Society, said: "This should remind us that the male reproductive
system is not immune from the effects of ageing.
"Whilst the
effects of aging are not as dramatic as are seen in women,
subtle changes in DNA quality could seriously affect a couple's
ability to conceive, or could lead to miscarriage or even health
problems in any children born.
"Having a family when you are
younger is always a good plan."
Story from BBC NEWS
© BBC MMV
|
Infertility