Male Infertility Linked to Being Overweight in Childhood

According to a recent article in the European Journal of Endocrinology, overweight boys tend to have smaller testicles, which puts them at risk of male infertility.

Infertility has an impact on women of reproductive age’s psychological well-being as well as their economic and social lives. 48 million couples struggled with infertility in 2010. Although male infertility is sometimes disregarded by outsiders, studies think it accounts for roughly 50% of cases of marital infertility. The cause of male infertility isn’t always evident, though.

About 70% of the male patients were infertile enough to be referred to a fertility facility in German research with over 20,000 patients having no diagnosis. Many male patients who are childless have no known cause for their infertility. Additionally, studies over the past forty years show a trend of declining sperm concentration and total sperm count.

The prevalence of childhood obesity has increased globally from 32 to 42 million, coinciding with the drop in sperm count. By the time they reach age 35, observers predict that around 60% of today’s kids will be obese.

Nearly a fifth of young men between the ages of 18 and 19 have testicular hypotrophy, putting their future fertility at risk. Over the past few decades, there have been significant changes in a number of environmental factors (such as exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals) and human behaviors (such as a sedentary lifestyle or eating problems).

It is uncertain how metabolic issues linked to obesity affect a child’s testicular growth. In this study, children and adolescents with body weight control referrals to the Unit of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of Catania in Sicily, aged 2 to 18, were the subjects of a retrospective, cross-sectional investigation.

The researchers gathered information on 268 kids and teens’ testicular volume, age, body mass index, and insulin resistance. In comparison to boys who were overweight or obese at the time of puberty, they discovered that boys with normal weight had testicular volumes that were 1.5 times greater.

In the study, children and teenagers with normal insulin levels had 1.5–2 times larger testicles than those with hyperinsulinemia, a disease frequently connected to type 2 diabetes in which people have elevated levels of insulin in their blood. As a result, those with obesity, hyperinsulinemia, or insulin resistance had smaller testicles than their healthy counterparts.

The researchers here think that weight loss may aid patients in preventing infertility later in life because smaller testicular volume predicts worse sperm production in maturity.

“Although the prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing worldwide, the impact of obesity and associated metabolic disorders on testicular growth is not well known,” said Rossella Cannarella, one of the authors of the paper.

“In this study, we found that being overweight or obese was associated with a lower peri-pubertal testicular volume. In addition, obesity-related comorbidities, such as hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, have been found to influence testicular volume in pre- and post-puberty. Therefore, we speculate that more careful control of body weight in childhood could represent a prevention strategy for maintaining testicular function later in life.”

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