Ladies – have you been reading about all this low sperm count that men around the world have been experiencing? Or rather men in the U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand?

Over the last 40 years sperm counts in these regions of the world have been dropping by close to 60%,  according to an article that appeared in Scientific American a few years ago. More importantly, the decline in sperm count is not slowing, and it is unclear what it is causing it.  Causes of the decline were not a part of the study but declining sperm counts have been attributed to exposure to certain chemicals and pesticides, smoking, stress and obesity.

This study, which was a meta-analysis of several articles, stated that this same decline was not found among African men. This would mean that African men may have a higher sperm count than African-American men.  Until recently, not enough studies had been completed among African men. Two years ago, a meta analysis of country-level sperm count studies among African men came out showing that there has been a 73% decline in sperm concentration among African men.  However, the study included less than ten countries and only were two sub-Saharan countries (Nigeria and Tanzania). Sample sizes were relatively small. But, obviously, sperm count has been occurring to a certain degree among African men over the last several decades as well.

So, do African men have stronger sperm count and concentration than African-American men? There aren’t any studies directly comparing sperm count and concentration among African and African-American men.

Ladies – we need more research that take our people’s health into consideration. Anyone searching for a research topic?