Objective: To evaluate associations between work-related stress, stressful life events, and perceived stress and semen quality.
Design: Cross-sectional analysis.
Setting: Northern California.
Patient(s): 193 men from the Child Health and Development Studies evaluated between 2005-2008.
Intervention(s): None.
Main outcome measure(s): Measures of stress including job strain, perceived stress, and stressful life events; outcome measures of sperm concentration, percentage of motile sperm, and percentage of morphologically normal sperm.
Result(s): We found an inverse association between perceived stress score and sperm concentration (estimated coefficient b=-0.09×10(3)/mL; 95% confidence interval [CI]=-0.18, -0.01), motility (b=-0.39; 95% CI=-0.79, 0.01), and morphology (b=-0.14; 95% CI, -0.25, -0.04) in covariate-adjusted linear regression analyses. Men who experienced two or more stressful life events in the past year compared with no stressful events had a lower percentage of motile sperm (b=-8.22; 95% CI, -14.31, -2.13) and a lower percentage of morphologically normal sperm (b=-1.66; 95% CI, -3.35, 0.03) but a similar sperm concentration. Job strain was not associated with semen parameters.
Conclusion(s): In this first study to examine all three domains of stress, perceived stress and stressful life events but not work-related stress were associated with semen quality.
Keywords: Semen quality; stress; work.
Copyright © 2014 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.