Tight clothes affects sperm count!

The changing lifestyle has hit male infertility in Indore too.

City-based andrologist and infertility surgeon Kapil Kocha says on an average, 15% couples face infertility problem.

Earlier, males accounted for 20% infertility cases, but now the percentage has risen to around 50%.

He attributed the growing infertility among males to the perils of modern lifestyle like addiction to smoking, alcohol, drugs, excessive exercise, sona bath, steam bath, tight clothes, environmental impacts and mobile radiation.

Too much heat generated by tight clothes can lower sperm count. Tight clothing and underwear that keep testicles closer to body heat in theory may affect sperm count.

However, Kochar pointed out, growing awareness on this issue is also contributing to rise in reported cases.

"Earlier, males considered infertility akin to impotency and treated it as a taboo, fearing social stigma. Things have changed a lot now," said Kochar.

These days, males not only from urban but also from orthodox rural background approach for tests for infertility, he added.

On an average, 150 males visit his clinic monthly, said Kochar. Such patients could be treated in 60 to 65% cases.

The trends in the city confirm the prevailing global trends, which report a drastic qualitative decline in semen over the period from 1938 to 1991. Total 61 studies have been undertaken in this period for assessing changes in sperm quality.

Sperm density fell from 113 million to 66 million in this period. Sperm volume also came down from average 3.4 ml to 2.75 ml in the same period, said Kochar.

Qualitative decline in sperm leads to complexities like abortion and miscarriage apart from infertility.