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The male body produces more than 100-200 million new sperm every day. This amount is high enough that men are not at risk of "depleting" sperm with age. However, age can affect sperm production or ejaculation, causing a decline in sperm quality and male fertility.
1. Is sperm quality decline in men related to age?
Women are not the only ones to experience a decline in fertility due to age, but the decline in male fertility with age is less significant than what women experience.
Studies demonstrate that, even controlling for age of a partner (since older men tend to have older female partners), increasing age in men is associated with a decline in fertility male fertility, defined as increased time to conception and decreased pregnancy rate. In a study of more than 8,000 pregnancies, the chance of conceiving in one year was 30% lower in men over the age of 40 than in men under the age of 30.
In another survey of 1,976 women, the impact of age was even greater: Researchers reported that the average gestation period for men aged 45 and older was five times greater than the average duration of pregnancy. Mean time to pregnancy for men under 25 years of age. In another study of 901 cycles of intrauterine insemination (an infertility treatment), men over the age of 35 had a pregnancy rate of 25%, compared with the pregnancy rate in men under 35 years of age. is 52%. Therefore, the decline in sperm quality and male fertility due to age has been clearly confirmed by research.
2. Why does age affect sperm quality?
New sperms are created every day. So why do we see the male fertility rate decreasing with age?
First of all, as men age, they are at increased risk of diseases affecting their sexual health and fertility, such as erectile dysfunction and cancer,... But even men Perfectly healthy men also experience reduced male fertility. Some potential causes of reduced sperm quality:
Decreased sperm motility: “Mobility” is the ability of sperm to move and “swim” in the right direction towards the egg. Research proves that sperm motility decreases with age; In healthy, non-smoking men, sperm motility decreased by 0.8% per year. Motility is developed as sperm move through the prostate and epididymis, so the decline in motility is thought to be due to age-related decline in function of these glands. Reduced sperm morphology: "Morphism" refers to the size and shape of the sperm. Studies have shown that normal sperm morphology decreases by 0.2 to 0.9% per year, resulting in normal morphology to decrease by 4 to 18% over a 20 year period. Lower numbers of normal-shaped sperm lead to impaired sperm quality and reduced male fertility, as abnormally shaped sperm are less likely to fertilize an egg.
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Decrease in semen volume: There may be a very slight decrease in semen volume (the amount of semen that is ejaculated) with age. Some reports show a modest change of 0.15 - 0.2% per year, accumulating to a 3-4% decrease in seminal volume over a 20-year period (with the most pronounced changes occurring in males). over 45 years old). On the other hand, some studies show no difference in mass with age, so the impact of this on declines in sperm quality and male fertility is unclear. .
3. When does male fertility start to decline?
Male fertility declines at a much slower rate than female fertility. When does male fertility start to decline? Like female fertility, male fertility declines throughout adulthood, but experts say a man's age doesn't significantly affect fertility until age 40. , because only about 1-2% of sperm motility/morphology decreases each year. Therefore, the decline in sperm quality in men is usually very small compared with the decline in egg quality each year in women.
However, unlike women who reach menopause when they run out of eggs, men experience declines in sperm quality and fertility but not age-related infertility. Men of any age can be fathered.
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