Slow Sperm

Slow Sperm

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What is male infertility? Urology Care Foundation. http://www.urologyhealth.org/urologic-conditions/male-infertility. Accessed Aug. 8, 2018.
Townsend CM Jr, et al. Urologic surgery. In: Sabiston Textbook of Surgery: The Biological Basis of Modern Surgical Practice. 20th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Elsevier; 2017. https://www.clinicalkey.com. Accessed Aug. 8, 2018.
How common is male infertility, and what are its causes? National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/menshealth/conditioninfo/infertility. Accessed Aug. 8, 2018.
Anawalt BD, et al. Approach to the male with infertility. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/search. Accessed Aug. 8, 2018.
Jameson JL, et al., eds. Clinical management of male infertility. In: Endocrinology: Adult and Pediatric. 7th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2016. https://www.clinicalkey.com. Accessed Aug. 8, 2018.
Wein AJ, et al., eds. Male infertility. In: Campbell-Walsh Urology. 11th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Elsevier; 2016. https://www.clinicalkey.com. Accessed Aug. 8, 2018.
Yao DF, et al. Male infertility: Lifestyle factors and holistic, complementary, and alternative therapies. Asian Journal of Andrology. 2016;18:410.
Using dietary supplements wisely. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. https://nccih.nih.gov/health/supplements/wiseuse.htm. Accessed Aug. 28, 2018.
AskMayoExpert. Male infertility. Mayo Clinic; 2019.
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Low sperm count means that the fluid (semen) you ejaculate during an orgasm contains fewer sperm than normal.
A low sperm count is also called oligospermia (ol-ih-go-SPUR-me-uh). A complete absence of sperm is called azoospermia. Your sperm count is considered lower than normal if you have fewer than 15 million sperm per milliliter of semen.
Having a low sperm count decreases the odds that one of your sperm will fertilize your partner's egg, resulting in pregnancy. Nonetheless, many men who have a low sperm count are still able to father a child.
The main sign of low sperm count is the inability to conceive a child. There might be no other obvious signs or symptoms. In some men, an underlying problem such as an inherited chromosomal abnormality, a hormonal imbalance, dilated testicular veins or a condition that blocks the passage of sperm may cause signs and symptoms.
Low sperm count symptoms might include:
See a doctor if you have been unable to conceive a child after a year of regular, unprotected intercourse or sooner if you have any of the following:
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The production of sperm is a complex process and requires normal functioning of the testicles (testes) as well as the hypothalamus and pituitary glands — organs in your brain that produce hormones that trigger sperm production. Once sperm are produced in the testicles, delicate tubes transport them until they mix with semen and are ejaculated out of the penis. Problems with any of these systems can affect sperm production.
Also, there can be problems of abnormal sperm shape (morphology), movement (motility) or function.
However, often the cause of low sperm count isn't identified.
Low sperm count can be caused by a number of health issues and medical treatments. Some of these include:
Ejaculation problems. Retrograde ejaculation occurs when semen enters the bladder during orgasm instead of emerging out of the tip of the penis. Various health conditions can cause retrograde ejaculation or lack of ejaculation, including diabetes, spinal injuries, and surgery of the bladder, prostate or urethra.
Certain medications also might result in ejaculatory problems, such as blood pressure medications known as alpha blockers. Some ejaculatory problems can be reversed, while others are permanent. In most cases of permanent ejaculation problems, sperm can still be retrieved directly from the testicles.
Defects of tubules that transport sperm. Many different tubes carry sperm. They can be blocked due to various causes, including inadvertent injury from surgery, prior infections, trauma or abnormal development, such as with cystic fibrosis or similar inherited conditions.
Blockage can occur at any level, including within the testicle, in the tubes that drain the testicle, in the epididymis, in the vas deferens, near the ejaculatory ducts or in the urethra.
Sperm production or function can be affected by overexposure to certain environmental elements, including:
Overheating the testicles. Elevated temperatures impair sperm production and function. Although studies are limited and are inconclusive, frequent use of saunas or hot tubs might temporarily impair sperm count.
Sitting for long periods, wearing tight clothing or working on a laptop computer for long stretches of time also might increase the temperature in your scrotum and slightly reduce sperm production.
Other causes of low sperm count include:
A number of risk factors are linked to low sperm count and other problems that can cause low sperm count. They include:
Infertility caused by low sperm count can be stressful for both you and your partner. Complications can include:
To protect your fertility, avoid known factors that can affect sperm count and quality. For example:
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Syracuse University. "Slower, longer sperm outcompete faster rivals, surprising finding shows." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 August 2012. .
Syracuse University. (2012, August 1). Slower, longer sperm outcompete faster rivals, surprising finding shows. ScienceDaily . Retrieved September 7, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120801143728.htm
Syracuse University. "Slower, longer sperm outcompete faster rivals, surprising finding shows." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120801143728.htm (accessed September 7, 2022).

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Slower, longer sperm outcompete faster rivals, surprising finding shows https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120801143728.htm
When it comes to sperm meeting eggs in sexual reproduction, conventional wisdom holds that the fastest swimming sperm are most likely to succeed in their quest to fertilize eggs. That wisdom was turned upside down in a new study of sperm competition in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), which found that slower and/or longer sperm outcompete their faster rivals.
When it comes to sperm meeting eggs in sexual reproduction, conventional wisdom holds that the fastest swimming sperm are most likely to succeed in their quest to fertilize eggs. That wisdom was turned upside down in a new study of sperm competition in fruit flies ( Drosophila melanogaster ), which found that slower and/or longer sperm outcompete their faster rivals.
The study, recently published online in Current Biology and forthcoming in print on Sept. 25, was done by a team of scientists led by corresponding author Stefan Lüpold, a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. The team made the discovery using fruit flies that were genetically altered so that the heads of their sperm glow fluorescent green or red under the microscope. The fruit flies, developed by biology Professor John Belote, enable researchers to observe sperm in real time inside the female reproductive tract.
"Sperm competition is a fundamental biological process throughout the animal kingdom, yet we know very little about how ejaculate traits determine which males win contests," says Lüpold, a Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow working in the laboratory of biology Professor Scott Pitnick. "This is the first study that actually measures sperm quality under competitive conditions inside the female, allowing us to distinguish the traits that are important in each of the reproductive phases."
The research is also significant because the scientists studied naturally occurring variations in sperm traits, rather than manipulating the test populations for specific traits. After identifying and isolating groups of males with similar ejaculate traits that remained constant across multiple generations, the scientists mated single females with pairs of males from the different groups. "This approach allowed us to simultaneously investigate multiple ejaculate traits and also observe how sperm from one male change behavior depending upon that of rival sperm," Lüpold says.
Female fruit flies mate about every three days. Sperm from each mating swim through the female bursa into a storage area until eggs are released. Eggs travel from the ovaries into the bursa to await the sperm. However, sperm battles actually take place within the storage area. After each mating, new sperm try to toss sperm from previous matings out of storage. The female then ejects the displaced sperm from the reproductive system, eliminating the ejected sperm from the mating game. The researchers observed that longer and slower-moving sperm were better at displacing their rivals and were also less likely to be ejected from storage than their more agile counterparts.
"The finding that longer sperm were more successful is consistent with earlier studies," Lüpold says. "However, the finding that slower sperm also have an advantage is counterintuitive."
Why slower sperm have an advantage is still open to speculation. "It could be that, when swimming back and forth in storage, slower sperm hit the exit less frequently and are therefore less likely to be pushed out," Lüpold says. "Or, because sperm velocity is dependent on the density of sperm within the narrow storage area, it could be that velocity isn't really the target of sexual selection in fruit flies, but is rather a consequence of the amount of sperm packed into the storage organ."
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation funded the study.
Materials provided by Syracuse University . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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