Male Depression Lowers Sperm Quality
Experts from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) argue that depression in a man significantly reduces his fertility and leads to infertility couples. Female depression does not have such a significant effect on the conception of a child.
Scientists analyzed data on 1.65 thousand women and 1.6 thousand men. In previous studies it was claimed that among people undergoing treatment for infertility, some symptoms of depression are observed in 40% of women and in more than half of men. In this study, depression was detected in 6% of women and 2.3% of men.
The vast majority of women took antidepressants. But due to the side effects of some drugs, 3.5 times more often they suffered from miscarriage in the first trimester than women who did not receive treatment.
Men were much more vulnerable to the disease. If a strong half of the couple had depression, the chances of conceiving were reduced by 60%. Studies show that these men have a much lower sperm concentration in sperm than healthy people.
Scientists point out that more research is needed to study the mechanisms of the effect of depression on male fertility. The psychological aspects of the problem are intuitively understood, the researchers emphasize, but at the physiological and biochemical level they have yet to be clarified.