2023-06-28 09:28:27
LAURA CUPPINI
Corriere della Sera
Updated Wednesday, June 28, 2023 – 09:28
A Spanish study points out that after infection half of the patients had a 57% lower sperm count.
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Sars-CoV-2 infection could damage male fertility, even in the long term. This is clear from a spanish study presented at the Annual Congress of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (Eshre), held in Copenhagen (Denmark).
Specifically, the study shows that, after at least 100 days after having tested negative for Covid 19 in men, there is no improvement in the number and motility of sperm, even though new sperm have been produced during this time.
The figures of the study
Between February 2020 and October 2022, the researchers recruited 45 men (with a mean age of 31 years) in six Spanish reproduction clinics. All had a confirmed diagnosis of mild Covid. In the centers they had collected semen samples before infection and then another sample was taken between 17 and 516 days after to have overcome it. The comparison showed a statistically significant difference in sperm volume (-20%, from 2.5 to 2 milliliters), sperm concentration (-26.5%, from 68 to 50 million per ml), sperm count ( -37.5%, from 160 to 100 million/ml), total motility (-9.1%, from 49% to 45%), and live sperm ratio (-5%, from 80% to 76%) . After Covid, half of the patients had an average sperm count 57% lower than before the infection. And not only that: one hundred days after the infection (more than three months), concentration and mobility had not improved.
The duration of the damage
Thus, the Covid, even if contracted slightly, seems to worsen the quality of sperm in the long term, although it is still any impact on fertility remains to be clarified. Based on previous work that showed how the quality of male sperm seems to deteriorate in the short term after infection by Covid, Roco Nez-Calonge, scientific adviser to the Ur International Group of the Madrid Scientific Reproduction Unit, wanted to investigate the duration of the damage. “Considering that it takes about 78 days to produce new sperm, we found it appropriate to assess its quality at least three months after recovery from Covid“, explained the expert. “We assumed that it would improve, but it has not. We do not know how long it may take to recover pre-infection sperm quality, and permanent damage cannot be excluded even in men who have had a mild form of Covid.”
Hormone levels
Nez-Calonge signaled that the deterioration of sperm quality may not be due to a direct effect of Sars-CoV-2. “It is likely that other factors, currently unknown, contribute to the long-term deterioration of these parameters,” he explained. “In this study we did not measure hormone levels: previously marked changes in testosterone have been reporteda key factor in male reproductive health, in patients with Covid infection”. For Nez-Calonge, “it is especially interesting that this decrease in sperm quality occurs in patients with mild infection, which means that Sars-CoV -2 could affect male fertility even in the absence of clinical symptoms of the disease.”
The team of researchers will continue to monitor the patients over time, evaluating both sperm quality and hormonal status. “Research shows the Importance of long-term monitoring of the fertility of patients after a Covid infection, even mild“, has commented the president of Eshre, Carlos Calhaz-Jorge, from the North Lisbon Hospital Center and the Lisbon Santa Maria Hospital. “However, it is important to point out that the quality of the sperm of these patients after the infection continues being within the normal criteria defined by the World Health Organization. Therefore, it is not clear whether this reduction in sperm quality translates into reduced fertility. This should be the subject of further investigation.“.
Problema irreversible
The Italian Society of Andrology has recently warned about the risk that the loss of male fertility will become an irreversible problem for the human species: in the worst case, in 2070 men will no longer be able to have children. The main problems are the increasing age of conception and sexual abstinence as a growing habit among young people (it is estimated that more than 1.6 million people between the ages of 18 and 40 only practice virtual sex). Added to these reasons are pollution and exposure to toxic substances, a mix of conditions that can seriously affect the quality and quantity of sperm.
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