Iranian temporal changes in semen quality during past 25 years: report from tertiary infertility center

Background: Although there are numerous reports about temporal changes in semen quality from all over the world, debates continue. The latest systemic review observed an overtime decrease in semen quality worldwide. This is the first report of its kind from our country.Objective: To assess the temporal changes of semen quality among Iranian population which was referred to a tertiary infertility center.Materials and Methods: Through a retrospective study, we compared semen parameters of 707 Iranian male patients between 1990 to 1992 (group 1) with 1108 men from 2010 to 2012 (group 2).Results: We showed despite increased sperm concentration from 84.48 in group 1 to 95.55 in group 2, sperm with normal morphology decreased significantly from 62.2 to 44.44%, grade A motility decreased significantly from 38.6% to 30.6%, grade B motility increased significantly from 21.34 to 30.3 % and grade C and D motile sperm remained constant. We also assessed the effect of age on semen parameters between 2 groups.Conclusion: We observed inconsistent changes of semen quality over time. These results should be further evaluated by larger sample groups in the future.

Keywords:

Infertility , Iranian , Temporal changes , Semen quality , Male factor