A recent study has found that Chinese men who are smoking are more likely to have abnormal semen compared to those who don't smoke. The finding was based on the research conducted by the China Sexology Association, China Andrology Association, and Peking University Third Hospital, and was published on Thursday.
The study involves 4,364 men, which was carried out at 25 medical institutes in China. In the study, 51 percent were said to be smokers, and 40 percent of which were reported to have smoked more than 10 sticks of cigarette per day. Moreover, roughly 60 percent of the smokers said they have been smoking for at least five years.
The result revealed that 32 percent of Chinese smokers were found to have abnormal semen, while only 16.6 percent for those who don't. About 43 percent of men involved in the study said they were aware of the harmful effects of smoking to their fertility and sperm quality, and almost all of the participants said they know the harmful effects of smoking on their overall health.
The World Health Organization (WHO) explained that "abnormal semen" basically describes a high number of irregularly shaped sperm, lower sperm count, and poor sperm vitality. According to Jiang Hui, the deputy director of the China Sexology Association, smoking has a negative impact on fertility since the nicotine found in the cigarette can harm the embryos, eggs, as well as the sperm cells.
The study also cited a previous study to support their findings. In 2016, research by the American Center for Reproductive Medicine noted that out of 6,000 men involved in their study, those who were exposed to cigarette smoke every day had more irregularly shaped sperm, a fewer sperm per ejaculation, and fewer mobile sperm. The research was published in the medical journal European Urology.
WHO reported in 2014 that China has approximately 300 million smokers (almost a third of the adult population) - and more than half of all men in the country were smoking. As per the South China Morning Post, Chinese men have falling sperm count which may likely hurt the effort in boosting birth rate.
At the Fudan University in Shanghai, only 10 percent of semen collected for more than 100 donors aged below 35 met the sperm bank's quality standard, while Renji Hospital's sperm bank had a significant drop wherein 25 percent of the semen taken from donors in 2017 was acceptable, compared to 40 percent in 2013.
