Diabetics are forever on alert for complications to their disease, changes within their bodies, highs, lows, diets and exercise. Now recent news comes from a study in a British Journal “Human Reproduction” showing that diabetic men now face a decrease in fertility.
The study analyzed samples from 56 men and noted that 52 percent of these men who are diabetic compared to 32 percent of men who are not had fragmented sperm DNA.
The study seems to deliver numerous issues that diabetic men may encounter in regards to reproduction. Not only is the sperm DNA fragmented it also shows that they have higher rates of DNA deletions in the Mitochondria. (These are the tiny, energy-generating structures in the cells). This can cause both infertility in them as well as pregnancy failure and miscarriage.
With Diabetes rapidly becoming an increasing disease, notably in Type One men this raises a major concern for couples who are hopeful to start a family, therefore it is indicated that further studies will need to be conducted to better understand the DNA damage to the sperm. It is suspected that Type One will rise by 50 percent over the next ten Years and the Diabetes effects will hit many of these young men prior to and during their reproductive years.
Other small scale studies have shown that the female egg has a limited ability to repair damaged sperm DNA. Although diabetic men have a lower than normal semen volume there to be no difference in sperm concentration, structure or movement.
Sources www.health24.com www.inthenews.co.uk www.ivanhoe.com
