New Danish research has revealed a correlation between stress and poor sperm quality. On average, men who are stressed have a sperm count 34 percent lower than men with a normal stress level.
The results hail from the city hospital Rigshospitalet, which tested over 1,200 young men as part of a compulsory medical examination to determine their fitness for military service from 2008-2012.
“The research documents that there is a connection between stress and sperm quality, which is a new find,” Niels Jørgensen, a doctor at the Department of Growth and Reproduction at Rigshospitalet, told P1 radio station. “We had a hypothesis that there was a connection, but we weren’t sure until now.”
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Danes rank low
According to Jørgensen, endocrine-disrupting substances have the greatest impact on sperm quality and we know that stress activates our hormone system.
The research is pretty dour reading for Danish men, when compared to other findings in Europe.
On average, the sperm quality of Danish men ranks rock bottom along with German and Norwegian men compared to the rest of the continent.
