Men trying for fatherhood receive a wealth of lifestyle advice on how best to boost their fertility — wear loose-fitting underpants, avoid hot baths, get a good night’s sleep and steer clear of junk food.
It is advice backed by research — including a study in June, led by Harvard University in the U.S., which found that men who ate the reddest and processed meat, sugary drinks and starchy carbohydrates had the lowest average sperm counts. On average, these were 25.6 million lower than those who ate the least processed food.
However, scientists are now uncovering a far more worrying truth. It seems that for most men suffering infertility from a low sperm count, the damage was done decades earlier — while they were still in the womb.
Evidence increasingly shows that the delicate processes involved in forming their reproductive organs can be disrupted in the early months of pregnancy, inflicting damage that can harm their chances of fatherhood. Moreover, new studies suggest that this not only sends their sperm counts plummeting, it also significantly raises men’s risk of serious illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and cancer in later life.
