ArticleEnvironment international2018
Secular trends in semen parameters among men attending a fertility center between 2000 and 2017: Identifying potential predictors.
Article in Environment international, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phthalates as the silent saboteurs of male fertility via changes in semen quality: a systematic review.Reproductive biology and endocrinology : RB&E · 2026Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of nonpharmacological strategies for the treatment of oligoasthenospermia: a systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis.European journal of medical research · 2023Pooled it
- Article
- Associations Between Perceived Stress and Sperm DNA Methylation Among Men Attending a Fertility Center.Andrology · 2026Article
- The impact of chemical pollution and warming on male fertility: a narrative review by the Special Interest Group "Environment and Fertility" of the Italian Society of Fertility and Sterility and Reproductive Medicine (SIFES-MR).Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2025Review
- Protective Effect of Lycium Barbarum Polysaccharides and Sodium Selenite on Cadmium Chloride-Induced Testicular Toxicity in Rats.Biological trace element research · 2025Article
- Perceived stress in relation to testicular function markers among men attending a fertility center.Fertility and sterility · 2025Observational
- Using mixture and exposome methods to assess the associations and interactions of chemical biomarkers with semen parameters.Environment international · 2025Article
- Environmental pollutant Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate induces asthenozoospermia: new insights from network toxicology.Molecular diversity · 2025Article
- The impact of Bisphenol-A on human reproductive health.Toxicology reports · 2024Review
- The effect of red blood cell disorders on male fertility and reproductive health.Nature reviews. Urology · 2024Review
- Effect ofPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- What is driving the global decline of human fertility? Need for a multidisciplinary approach to the underlying mechanisms.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2024Review
- Origin, dietary exposure, and toxicity of endocrine-disrupting food chemical contaminants: A comprehensive review.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Occupational factors and markers of testicular function among men attending a fertility center.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2023Observational
- Time-trends in human urinary concentrations of phthalates and substitutes DEHT and DINCH in Asian and North American countries (2009-2019).Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2023Article
- Trends in sperm quality by computer-assisted sperm analysis of 49,189 men during 2015-2021 in a fertility center from China.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- A Case-Control Study on the Effects of Plasticizers Exposure on Male Fertility.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Spatiotemporal trends in human semen quality.Nature reviews. Urology · 2022Review
- Androgen Receptor Gene CAG Repeat Length Varies and Affects Semen Quality in an Ethnic-Specific Fashion in Young Men from Russia.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMultiple meta-analyses have shown sperm count declines in Western countries spanning eight decades. Secular trends in other parameters remain unclear, as are potential predictors of these trends.
objectiveTo analyze secular trends in semen quality and to evaluate whether factors previously found to be related to semen quality were responsible for these patterns.
methodsThis is a prospective study including 936 men of couples seeking infertility treatment who provided 1618 semen samples at a single center (2000-2017). Self-reported demographic, nutritional and reproductive characteristics were collected using standardized questionnaires. Urinary concentrations of bisphenol A, parabens and phthalates were quantified by isotope-dilution tandem mass spectrometry. Semen samples were analyzed for volume, sperm concentration, count, motility and morphology following WHO guidelines. We estimated the differences in semen parameters over time by fitting generalized linear mixed models with random intercepts to account for repeated samples while adjusting for abstinence time. We also adjusted for demographic, nutritional and environmental factors to investigate these as potential predictors of time trends.
resultsSperm concentration and count declined by 2.62% per year (95% CI -3.84, -1.38) and 3.12% per year (95% CI: -4.42, -1.80), corresponding to an overall decline of 37% and 42%, respectively, between 2000 and 2017. Decreasing trends were also observed for total motility (per year: -0.44 percentage units, 95% CI -0.71, -0.17) and morphologically normal sperm (per year: -0.069 percentage units, 95% CI -0.116, -0.023). These decreases reflected relative percentage declines of 15% and 16% over the 17 year study period, respectively. When reproductive factors were included in the model, the downward trends in sperm concentration and sperm count were attenuated by 29% and 26%, respectively, while the trends in motility and morphology were attenuated by 54% and 53%, respectively. Also, the downward trends in both sperm concentration and sperm morphology over time were attenuated by 19% when including the DEHP and non-DEHP metabolites, respectively.
conclusionsSperm concentration, total count, motility and morphology significantly declined between 2000 and 2017 among subfertile men. These negative trends were attenuated when considering simultaneous changes in reproductive characteristics and urinary phthalates during the course of the study.
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