Explained: A New Study Claims A Man's Sperm Quality Decides How Long He Will Live

While sperm quality is linked to male fertility, it may also hold clues to longer life. According to a new study, men with higher-quality sperm tend to live longer than those with poor swimmers who struggle to reach their destination.

The huge-scale research, published in Human Reproduction, tracked over 78,000 men for over 50 years. The findings revealed that men with the best-quality sperm lived nearly three years longer than those with the lowest quality. The ability of sperm to properly swim through the female reproductive tract to reach and fertilize an egg is called motility.

“It really seems to be that the better the semen quality, the longer the survival,” said lead study author Lærke Priskorn, a researcher and doctoral candidate at Copenhagen University Hospital, in a statement.

In the report, researchers compared the quality of sperm samples taken between 1965 and 2015 from men undergoing infertility testing in Copenhagen. The quality was then compared with national medical records gathered by the Danish National Health Service. “The lower the semen quality, the lower the life expectancy,” Priskorn said. “This association was not explained by any diseases in the ten years before semen quality assessment or the men’s educational level.”

Motility counts are typically provided in percentages, not total numbers. According to the World Health Organisation, a man’s sperm is normal if about 42 per cent of the sperm in each sample of ejaculate is capable of swimming to their destination. However, a motility count of less than 5 million per milliliter of semen is associated with a severe case of oligospermia, or low sperm count, which often leads to male infertility, the study said.

However, researchers said the sperm motility of about 125 million per milliliter of semen, considered normal for a fertile male, does not guarantee male fertility.

And so, testing semen can be a marker for male health problems at younger ages.

According to experts, the association can be explained due to oxidative stress, caused when free radicals run rampant. Free radicals are unstable molecules that damage the DNA inside cells if they build up. They may play a role in a range of diseases and the visible signs of ageing. It also leads to cell death throughout the body, including the testes and sperm.

According to experts, all genetic, immunological, metabolic, environmental, or lifestyle factors enhance overall levels of oxidative stress and can be the reason behind changes in the semen profile and subsequent patterns of mortality.

Smoking, excessive alcohol, sun exposure, pesticides, industrial chemicals, and air pollutants are just a few of the ways free radicals get activated in a man’s body, according to the National Cancer Institute. However, your body does have a way to fight back with the help of antioxidants, which are also known as free radical scavengers. These prevent and repair damage caused by some types of free radicals.

Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Health and around the world.