Dad's Age Plays Role in Fertility

Chlamydia trachomatis infection in women with secondary infertility. (Fertil Steril. 2008) “CONCLUSION(S): Prevalence of past chlamydial infection is strongly statistically significant in women with secondary infertility. Current infection was also found statistically significantly in these women. Immunoglobulin G antibody detection is an effective and noninvasive tool for detection of Chlamydia and a more viable option than HSG in a developing country such as India. Screening of women with secondary infertility for C. trachomatis is strongly recommended to allow early therapeutic interventions.”

Coffee 'worsens poor fertility' “Drinking too much coffee can lower the odds of a woman with fertility problems getting pregnant, a study suggests. Dutch researchers followed 9,000 women who had received IVF to see if they fell pregnant naturally. Around one in seven did, but drinking more than four cups of coffee a day cut chances of conceiving by around 26%. Experts said the findings, presented to a European conference, only applied to women with poor fertility who wanted to maximise their chances of pregnancy. “

Diabetes Linked To Male Infertility; Excess Sugars In The Body Have Direct Effect On Sperm Quality

Evidence that obesity alters the quality of oocytes and embryos. (Pathophysiology. 2008) “Infertility is more common in overweight and obese women, with reproductive impairments occurring at many levels of the hypothalamic-ovarian-uterine axis. These impairments lead primarily to longer times to conception and decreased pregnancy rates and have resulted in increasing numbers of overweight and obese women seeking assisted reproduction technologies, such as in vitro fertilization or IVF. Even after undertaking IVF procedures obese women have decreased pregnancy rates compared to moderate weight women, suggesting there may be intrinsic differences in the oocytes of these patients.”

Human semen quality and sperm DNA damage in relation to urinary metabolites of pyrethroid insecticides. (Hum Reprod. 2008) “CONCLUSIONS We found evidence for reduced semen quality and increased sperm DNA damage in relation to urinary metabolites of pyrethroid insecticides. These findings may be of concern due to increased pyrethroid use and prevalent human exposure.”

Soy Linked to Low Sperm Count “Eating half a serving of soy food a day lowers sperm concentrations and may play a role in male infertility, particularly in obese men, Harvard University researchers report. The reason for this relationship between soy and sperm count isn't clear. However, researchers speculate that soy increases estrogen activity, which may have a negative affect on sperm production and also interfere with other hormonal signals. "There have been a lot of interest in estrogen and isoflavones in particular and a potential relationship to fertility and other reproductive disorders," said lead researcher Dr. Jorge Chavarro, a research fellow in the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Research in animals has shown that isoflavones and estrogen can have a potentially negative affect on reproduction, including decreased fertility, Chavarro said. However, there is very little evidence of how these findings apply to humans, he said. … "When patients are overweight, the fat tissue converts male hormones to more female hormones," Sadeghi-Nejad said. "So, it is possible that the combination of this estrogenic source [soy] and the extra internal estrogen that is caused by the conversion of androgen to estrogen through the fat has a more deleterious effect in that group of patients." “