Alcohol consumption and semen quality in young healthy men

Abstract

Over the past 50 years it has been suggested a worldwide decline in human semen quality, probably being lifestyles one of the main factors concerned. Our objectives are to describe semen quality and alcohol consumption in young university students and to explore the associations between alcohol intake and semen quality in young healthy men. A cross-sectional study was carried out between 2010 and 2011 in the Murcia Region (Spain) and included healthy young university students between 18-23 years of age. Two hundred and nine men completed questionnaires on lifestyle and diet, undertook a physical and andrological examination and provided a semen sample. Descriptive statistics are presented using untransformed data. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to analyze the associations between alcohol intake and semen quality in young men. The median (interquartile range: IQR) values for semen parameters were 42.9 x 10⁶/mL (IQR: 21.9-72.2 x 10⁶/mL) for sperm concentration, 8.9 % (IQR: 6.0-13.9 %) for morphologically normal sperm, and 57.2 % (IQR: 50.7-63.8 %) for sperm motility (progessive and non-progressive). There were no significant associations between alcohol consumption and any sperm parameters. Our results do not support the hypothesis that alcohol intake is related with sperm quality parameters probably due to the low alcohol consumption range in our population of healthy, unselected young men. In conclusion, moderate alcohol consumption is not associated with semen quality in young university students of Murcia Region (Spain).