A new study shows that fertile men in more rural areas have lower sperm counts and less vigorous sperm than men in urban centers. It’s the first study that shows that semen quality differs significantly between regions of the United States. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports, agricultural chemicals may be to blame:
Transcript
A new study shows that fertile men in more rural areas have lower sperm
counts and less vigorous sperm than men in urban centers. It’s the first
study that shows that semen quality differs significantly between
regions of the United States. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie
MacDowell reports, agricultural chemicals may be to blame:
Researchers studied couples at prenatal care clinics in Missouri, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and New York.
Men from the rural area of Missouri had counts and quality that were up to 58 percent lower than men from any of the urban centers.
Dr. Shanna Swan, the researcher who headed the project, says the results were
unexpected.
“I would have hypothesized that the larger, denser, probably more polluted
urban centers would have lower semen quality, so, this was a surprise.”
Swan says it’s highly unlikely the differences in the findings are due to experimental error or chance, due to strict controls.
She says environmental factors, such as agricultural chemical exposures, are the best explanation for the inconsistencies.
But she adds that right now, it’s only a hypothesis.
The team is now testing subjects’ urine for pesticide levels and comparing them with semen quality.
The researchers hope to be out with this study in the next six months.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Annie MacDowell.