Gareth Manning, Gleaner Reporter

THE INCREASED use of herbicides and steroids in food and meat production, as well as the smoking of marijuana are being linked to increasing low fertility in Jamaican men, health officials have revealed.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the man is responsible in about 60 per cent of infertile couples. In Jamaica, doctors think the statistics are similar, with the male factor responsible in about 50 per cent of cases. Worldwide, it is believed that the male sperm count has decreased by 50 per cent over the past 50 years.

"It (marijuana) definitely has an effect. There are no studies to confirm it but it is associated," says professor of reproductive medicine at the University of the West Indies, Joseph Frederick.

Findings in the US

Professor Frederick's thoughts are backed by other findings in the United States. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine notes that while studies on how marijuana affects male fertility are inconclusive, smoking does in fact lower sperm count and reduces motility. It also increases abnormalities in sperm shape and function that can lower fertility.

Burn out

A 2003 study by researchers at the University of Buffalo in the United States also found that frequent marijuana smokers produced less seminal fluid, a lower total sperm count and their sperm behaved abnormally. According to the study led by Dr. Lani Burkman, the active compound in marijuana, tertahydrocannabinol (THC), causes sperm to swim too fast too early therefore causing it to burn out before it could attach itself to an egg.

Professor Frederick, who is also director of the Advanced Fertility and Research Management Unit, adds that herbicides, which often find their way into water sources, "tend to have more oestrogen (a female hormone) and that tends to have an effect on males."

He says oestrogen can be obtained from several sources including from steroids that are given to poultry to accelerate their growth.

Medical therapist Dr. Anthony Vendryes says these chemicals act like female hormones in the body.

"They are called endocrine disrupters and are a major cause of male infertility," he states.

Other lifestyle illnesses, such as diabetes and hypertension, also affect sperm production in men, as well as injuries to the testicles and the wearing of close fitting underwear or pants. The latter tends to affect the temperature at which sperms are produced.

Professor Frederick posits that certain viruses might also be affecting men. He theorises that the human Papilloma virus (HPV) for instance, which causes cervical cancer in women, but is not known to affect men (though they carry the virus), might be affecting male fertility and might even be causing early prostate cancer. There are some 200 subtypes of the HPV.

"Up to now nobody has said anything as to how it affects males. It could be very well that a mutant strain may be affecting males in several ways," he says. The research, however is yet to be done.

Knowing that one suffers fertility problems can damage a man's ego, likewise his relationship with his spouse.

"In our environment, males tend to put a lot of emphasis on their prowess and when a man finds that he has a problem with his sperm count, he is daunted by the fact that he will go to any limit to get it sorted out," comments Professor Frederick.

There are ways to treat male infertility. According to the professor there are different types of fertility problems and each one is treated differently. There are men, for example, who produce no sperm at all when they ejaculate, while others produce a low percentage or average number of sperm that cannot swim.

In the case of the latter, an intrauterine insemination (IUI) can be done, where the sperms are introduced 40 hours after the woman has ovulated. Chemical drugs can also be used to increase sperm count, but most cases end up in assisted conception, where the female is stimulated and her eggs harvested. It then goes through a process called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), that is injecting the ovary with sperm for it to be fertilised. After two days the fertilised egg would be placed back into the female for implantation.

A study is currently being conducted by the Fertility Management Unit to determine the quality of sperm in Jamaican men.