THE EFFECT OF MALE AGE ON SEMEN QUALITY AND FERTILITY
Sherif Mohey El-din Ismail;
Abstract
Aging is an inevitable natural phenomenon wherein there is a gradual decline in the physical and mental faculties of an individual. Gerontologists use the term senescence to describe aging as a progressive deterioration of many bodily functions over time, marked by a decrease in fertility and an increased risk for diseases, culminating in multi-organ failure and death.
While female fertility ends at the entrance into menopause around the age of 50, men generally do not experience an unavoidable and clear-cut cessation of reproductive capacity. Conventional semen analysis, including ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, motility, and morphology determined according to World Health Organisation (WHO) criteria, are the first step in the evaluation of male infertility. Among the basic semen parameters studied, semen volume, percentage of motile spermatozoa, and the percentage of normal morphology were more consistently reported to decrease with age.
It has been observed that there is a concomitant endocrine changes with increasing age of male, which in turn affects male fertility. Plasma levels of DHEA and DHEA-S decrease continuously after the age of 25. There is an average annual decline of 1–2% total testosterone levels and the adrenal steroid androstenedione (Ae) follows a similarly sharp decline. The pituitary gonadotrophins, LH and FSH increase in serum concentration with age in men.
Routine semen analysis provides limited prognostic information on fertility, and recent studies indicated that the integrity of sperm DNA might be a more accurate and precise predictor of fertility as intact DNA is necessary for the correct transmission of genetic material to the next generation. High levels of sperm DNA damage have been reported to affect fertility potential, increase the risk of recurrent miscarriages, decrease the chances of a successful implantation, and possibly lead to negative effects on the health of offspring. Sperm DNA integrity as assessed by TUNEL, SCSA and Comet assays were also shown to be compromised with advancing age.
Also, MSOME evaluates spermatozoa according to their fine nuclear morphology, focusing mainly on the correlation between DNA damage and sperm morphological abnormalities that can be observed at high magnification. There is a decline in semen quality, in terms of morphology judged by MSOME (i.e., a decrease in the percentage of normal spermatozoa and a concomitant increase in the percentage of LNV spermatozoa), with an increase in male's age.
With aging, the incidence of diseases has been found to increase. Some of these diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, atherosclerosis, stroke, BPH and erectile dysfunction, exhibit a significant effect on male fertility.
While female fertility ends at the entrance into menopause around the age of 50, men generally do not experience an unavoidable and clear-cut cessation of reproductive capacity. Conventional semen analysis, including ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, motility, and morphology determined according to World Health Organisation (WHO) criteria, are the first step in the evaluation of male infertility. Among the basic semen parameters studied, semen volume, percentage of motile spermatozoa, and the percentage of normal morphology were more consistently reported to decrease with age.
It has been observed that there is a concomitant endocrine changes with increasing age of male, which in turn affects male fertility. Plasma levels of DHEA and DHEA-S decrease continuously after the age of 25. There is an average annual decline of 1–2% total testosterone levels and the adrenal steroid androstenedione (Ae) follows a similarly sharp decline. The pituitary gonadotrophins, LH and FSH increase in serum concentration with age in men.
Routine semen analysis provides limited prognostic information on fertility, and recent studies indicated that the integrity of sperm DNA might be a more accurate and precise predictor of fertility as intact DNA is necessary for the correct transmission of genetic material to the next generation. High levels of sperm DNA damage have been reported to affect fertility potential, increase the risk of recurrent miscarriages, decrease the chances of a successful implantation, and possibly lead to negative effects on the health of offspring. Sperm DNA integrity as assessed by TUNEL, SCSA and Comet assays were also shown to be compromised with advancing age.
Also, MSOME evaluates spermatozoa according to their fine nuclear morphology, focusing mainly on the correlation between DNA damage and sperm morphological abnormalities that can be observed at high magnification. There is a decline in semen quality, in terms of morphology judged by MSOME (i.e., a decrease in the percentage of normal spermatozoa and a concomitant increase in the percentage of LNV spermatozoa), with an increase in male's age.
With aging, the incidence of diseases has been found to increase. Some of these diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, atherosclerosis, stroke, BPH and erectile dysfunction, exhibit a significant effect on male fertility.
Other data
| Title | THE EFFECT OF MALE AGE ON SEMEN QUALITY AND FERTILITY | Other Titles | تأثير عمرالذكر على نوعية و كفاءة السائل المنوي والخصوبة | Authors | Sherif Mohey El-din Ismail | Issue Date | 2015 |
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