Healthy men with subnormal sperm counts live shorter lives

Sabine Groos, University of Marburg
Ulrich Mueller, University of Marburg
Walter Krause, University of Marburg

There are several reasons for studying mortality associated with male fertility disorders: Spermatogenesis is a rare example of physiological continuous cell proliferation in the adult organism. Disorders of spermatogenesis may be useful models of other proliferation disorders. Only Childlessness by compromised fertility may shorten the male lifespan. Here we report on lifetime mortality of all otherwise healthy men with normal and low sperm counts measured in the outpatient fertility facility of the Department of Andrology at Marburg University Hospital from 1949 among men born before 1937. Vital status was measured end 2002. Of 608 normozoospermic men, 119 have died; of 121 oligozoospermic 35; of 125 azoospermic 37. In a lifetable analysis dates of birth and sperm count controlled, we observed a cumulative mortality of the three groups of 19,6%, 28,9% and 29,6% resp. We conclude that otherwise healthy men with subnormal sperm counts had a lower life expectancy.