Get your male clients out and running with some startling news: diabetes and being overweight or underweight can have negative effects on male fertility, according to two reports presented July 9 at the European Society of Human Reproduction & Embryology conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Seemingly normal semen samples were revealed to have DNA damage, upon closer inspection.
"Sperm RNA was significantly altered, and many of the changes we observed are in RNA transcripts involved in DNA repair," said Dr. Con Mallidis, of Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. "And comparison with a database of men of proven fertility confirmed our findings. Diabetics have a significant decrease in their ability to repair sperm DNA, and once this is damaged, it cannot be restored."
To make matters worse, the quality of DNA in semen is connected to the quality of embryos, embryo implantation rates, miscarriages and major diseases in children (including some cancers).
