SynthesisTheScientificWorldJournal2014
Shedding light on the controversy surrounding the temporal decline in human sperm counts: a systematic review.
Synthesis in TheScientificWorldJournal, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Impact of organophosphate pesticides exposure on human semen parameters and testosterone: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Pooled it
- A decade of semen quality trends in Libya: nonlinear temporal patterns, age effects, and WHO 2010-2021 reclassification.Reproduction & fertility · 2026Article
- The Global Decline in Sperm Count and Testosterone Levels: Trends, Mechanisms, and Environmental Drivers.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Male reproductive health under environmental, pharmacological, and disease influences: a scoping review.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Review
- What is driving the global decline of human fertility? Need for a multidisciplinary approach to the underlying mechanisms.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2024Review
- Male infertility.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2023Review
- Is seminal quality worsening? A 20-year experience in Córdoba, Argentina.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2022Article
- Iranian temporal changes in semen quality during the past 22 years: A report from an infertility center.International journal of reproductive biomedicine · 2020Article
- Regional difference in semen quality of young men: a review on the implication of environmental and lifestyle factors during fetal life and adulthood.Basic and clinical andrology · 2020Review
- Unraveling the utility and limitations of clinical practice guidelines.Translational andrology and urology · 2017Article
- RE: Clinical relevance of routine semen analysis and controversies surrounding the 2010 World Health Organization criteria for semen examination.International braz j urol : official journal of the Brazilian Society of UrologyArticle
- Decline in semen quality among infertile men in Brazil during the past 10 years.International braz j urol : official journal of the Brazilian Society of UrologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We systematically examined the evidence of declining sperm counts and the hypothesis that an increased exposure to environmental pollutants is responsible for such decline. Search engines, including PUBMED, MEDLINE, EMBASE, BIOSIS, and Cochrane library, were used to identify epidemiologic studies published from 1985 to 2013. We concluded that there is no enough evidence to confirm a worldwide decline in sperm counts. Also, there seems to be no scientific truth of a causative role for endocrine disruptors in the temporal decline of sperm production. Such assumptions are based on few meta-analyses and retrospective studies, while other well-conducted researches could not confirm these findings. We acknowledge that difficult-to-control confounding factors in the highly variable nature of semen, selection criteria, and comparability of populations from different time periods in secular-trend studies, the quality of laboratory methods for counting sperm, and apparently geographic variations in semen quality are the main issues that complicate the interpretation of the available evidence. Owing to the importance of this subject and the uncertainties still prevailing, there is a need not only for continuing monitoring of semen quality, reproductive hormones, and xenobiotics, but also for a better definition of fecundity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.