Associations between air pollution and sperm quality, a prospective study in a Barcelona fertility clinic

Abstract

TPS 743: Health effects in pregnancy, Exhibition Hall, Ground floor, August 26, 2019, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Background/Aim: Prevalence of infertility has increased in recent years. In parallel, a decrease in sperm quality has been observed among men. Sperm quality is associated with several chronic disease, lifestyle and environmental factor. Among them, air pollution is a growing problematic, but the study results are inconsistent due to differences in study design, and exposition measures. The objective of this study is to evaluate association between air pollution exposure and sperm quality. Methods: A prospective study was conducted in a fertility clinic in Barcelona between 2015 and 2018, recruiting males from infertile couples. At inclusion, the participant completed a questionnaire including demographic and lifestyle data (including education, drugs consumption, dietetics and physical activity). Volume, concentration, motility, morphology and DNA fragmentation from multiples seminograms were collected for each participant, including previous to enrolment. Long term exposure to NO2, NOx, PM10, PMcoarse, PM2.5 and PM2.5-absorbance at the participant home address was assessed using LUR ESCAPE models. Association between long term air pollution exposure and the averaged sperm quality parameters by participant was studied using linear regressions adjusted on age, body mass index, study level and smoking status. Results: 322 men were included contributing with 1009 (from 1 to 20 samples per participants). Mean age at seminograms was 37.7 years. A third of participants were non smokers (34%), more than half were overweight or obese (55%) and half of them had at least a graduate degrees (52%). No associations were found between long term exposure to any of the air pollutants included and any of the sperm parameters studied. Conclusions: Our study does not reveal an association between pollution and sperm quality. Our results are coherent with existing the existing literature that has shown inconsistent results. There is a need for further research using specific windows of exposure.