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Occupational Exposures Obtained by Questionnaire in Clinical Practice and Their Association With Semen Quality

GWENDOLINE DE FLEURIAN^*,,

JEANNE PERRIN^*,

RENÉ ECOCHARD

EMMANUELLE DANTONY

VINCENT ACHARD

JEAN-MARIE GRILLO^*,

MARIE-ROBERTE GUICHAOUA^*,

ALAIN BOTTA^*,

IRÉNE SARI-MINODIER^*,

From the ^* Laboratoire de Biogénotoxicologie et Mutagenèse Environnementale, Fédération de Recherche ECCOREV, Faculté de Médecine, Marseille, France; the Service Hospitalo-Universitaire de Médecine et Santé au Travail, AP-HM et Faculté de Médecine, Marseille, France; the Laboratoire de Biologie de la Reproduction, AP-HM–La Conception, Marseille, France; and the Hospices Civils de Lyon, Service de Biostatistique, Lyon, France; the Université de Lyon, Villeurbanne, France; and the Laboratoire Biostatistique Santé, Pierre-Bénite, France.

Correspondence to: Dr Jeanne Perrin, Laboratoire de Biologie de la Reproduction, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Marseille–CHU La Conception, 147, Bd. Baille, 13385 Marseille Cedex 05, France (e-mail: jeanne.perrin{at}ap-hm.fr).

Abstract

In industrial countries, evidence suggests that semen quality has been steadily decreasing over the past 5 decades. We employed a short questionnaire to examine the association between self-reported physical or chemical occupational exposures and semen quality. The study included 402 men consulting for couple infertility (314 with oligospermia, asthenospermia, or teratospermia and 88 with normal semen; World Health Organization criteria). Exposure effects on global sperm quality and total sperm count, sperm motility, and sperm morphology were investigated. We found significant associations between semen impairment and occupational risk factors such as exposure to heavy metals (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 5.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6–18.1), solvents (OR = 2.5; 95% CI, 1.4–4.4), fumes (OR = 1.9; 95% CI, 1.1–3.4), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (OR = 1.9; 95% CI, 1.1–3.5). Exposure to pesticides or cement was nearly significant (OR = 3.6; 95% CI, 0.8–15.8, and OR = 2.5; 95% CI, 0.95–6.5, respectively). Physical risk factors were associated with some sperm anomalies, such as mechanical vibrations with oligospermia and teratospermia as well as excess heat and extended sitting periods with impaired motility. Exposure to ionizing radiation and electromagnetic fields was not associated with semen impairment; these results, however, may be skewed, because very few subjects reported such exposure. Despite the small dataset, self-reported exposures were correlated with semen impairment. This approach may be recommended in routine clinical practice to seek relationships between occupational exposures to reprotoxic agents and impaired semen parameters. This knowledge would allow preventive measures in the workplace to be established and could be complemented by the use of biomarkers to better characterize exposure to chemical substances and their spermiotoxic effects.

     Key words: Semen, male infertility, occupational exposure, questionnaire, self-reported exposures

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