BANGALORE: Doctors involved in human infertility research are ‘astonished’ over the large number of cases of men with no sperm in two cities - Kurnool and Jodhpur.
The startling fact that men evaluated for infertility in these two cities had very high incidences of azoospermia - a situation where there are no sperms in the ejaculate - was revealed in a five-year study that covered semen samples of 16,714 men in five cities.
The prevalence of azoospermia in Jodhpur infertile population is 38.2%, and the population in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh is 37.4%. Both rates are higher than those reported from any part of the world, such as Mexico at 26%, Mongolia at 20% and Zimbabwe at 24%.
“The cause is not clear. We have built a hypothesis that there could be geographical and environmental peculiarities in these two cities,” Dr Rajvi H Mehta of the Hope Infertility Clinic and Research Foundation in Bangalore, who led the study, told DNA.
In India, the prevalence was 14.6% in Jalandhar, Punjab and 10% in Mumbai and in Bangalore.
The study, published in the latest issue of the Asian Journal of Andrology, was initiated after the Hope clinic found an unusually large number of referrals for male infertility treatment from Kurnool. The paper also covers oligozoospermia — the condition where there are some sperm, but fewer than normal — in these regions.
A possible cause of high infertility in Kurnool, a cotton growing area, could be the high use of pesticides to grow the cash crop. Besides, Gossypol, a phenolic compound isolated from the plant is known to be
toxic.
Clinical trials conducted with Gossypol in China have shown that the drug led to decrease in sperm count, the study said. In Jodhpur, there is high level of fluoride in ground water.
“Exposure to high fluoride levels has a detrimental effect on the male reproductive system in animals and can also cause disruption of reproductive hormones in men. But studies need to be conducted for establishing the fact in drinking water,” the paper said.
Does this hint of a larger problem? Dr Mehta hopes it is not so.She has submitted a proposal to the Indian Council of Medical Research for a comprehensive study of a larger population across many regions to find out more about the issue. Once approved, it would take about two to three years for the study to be complete.
“We have to find the peculiarity of a region, identify patients, their lifestyle, occupations and the potential agents that could have led to azoospermia and analyse the cause,” Dr
Mehta said.
