by Claudia Boyd-Barrett posted in Pregnancy

If you?ve been reading the news recently you?ve probably heard reports about a possible dramatic decline in sperm count. But don?t get too alarmed if you?re currently trying to conceive.
Although the study, published in the journal?Human Reproduction Update, detected a more than 50 percent drop in sperm count over the past 40 years among men living in western countries, the average amount of sperm found in semen samples was generally still enough to father a child. So although the study?s findings are concerning if this apparent trend continues, it?s not currently a public health crisis.

The researchers analyzed sperm count data from more than 180 studies conducted between 1973 and 2011 and involving almost 43,000 men from all over the world. They divided the data into two groups: Sperm counts for men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand; and those for men living in other countries. Among western men unaware of their fertility status, the researchers detected a 52% drop in sperm concentration (99 million per milliliter of fluid down to 47 million per ml) between 1973 and 2011. Men in other parts of the world didn?t appear to have suffered a decline in sperm concentration, but that might be because there were fewer studies involving that population so data may be lacking.

 
The authors didn?t know why sperm counts seemed to have declined so much. Scientists have speculated it could be linked to multiple facto...