A new study from Denmark has found that long-term exposure to air pollution may increase the risk of infertility in men, while road traffic noise could increase infertility in women over 35.
The study, published in The BMJ, highlights the potential impact of environmental factors on reproductive health.
Infertility is a significant global issue, affecting about one in seven couples trying to have a baby.
Previous studies have shown that air pollution can negatively affect sperm quality and fertility treatment success, but there has been little research on how pollution and noise might influence the ability to conceive naturally.
To investigate this, researchers looked at data from over 526,000 men and 377,000 women aged 30-45 in Denmark between 2000 and 2017.
The participants were either married or living with a partner and had fewer than two children, making them likely to be actively trying to conceive. People with a known infertility diagnosis or who had undergone procedures to prevent pregnancy were excluded from the study.
The researchers calculated average levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution and road traffic noise at each participant’s address from 1995 to 2017. They also recorded infertility diagnoses from the national health register during an 18-year follow-up period.
In total, 16,172 men and 22,672 women were diagnosed with infertility. The study found that men exposed to higher levels of PM2.5 air pollution over five years had a 24% higher risk of infertility. Interestingly, PM2.5 was not linked to infertility in women.
For women over 35, exposure to higher levels of road traffic noise was linked to a 14% higher risk of infertility. However, noise did not seem to affect younger women (aged 30-35) or men under 37, though there was a slight increase in infertility risk for men aged 37-45 due to noise.
The study showed that these risks were consistent across people living in rural, suburban, and urban areas, regardless of their income or education level.
While this is an observational study and cannot prove that pollution or noise causes infertility, it provides important insights into how environmental factors may affect reproductive health. The researchers suggest that future studies could confirm these findings and lead to strategies for reducing air pollution and noise to help improve birth rates.
They conclude that reducing air pollution and noise could become important tools in addressing infertility in the Western world if further research supports their results.
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Source: KSR.
