Obesity and male infertility: A global health problem

Dietary habits have an impact on male reproductive potential. A team led by Professor Pedro F. Oliveira at University of Porto, Portugal recently published a paper in the "Current Pharmaceutical Design" Journal discussing obesity and its impact on the reproductive potential of males. "Obesity is a metabolic disease that promotes a strong hormonal dysfunction. Gut hormones are known to be strongly affected by the energy unbalance induced by overconsumption of food. However, the impact of those hormones on male reproductive system remains unknown," explained Marco G. Alves, first author of the paper. He further added that "Gut and adipose hormones are currently on spotlight for a growing number of researchers and the pandemic numbers of obesity highlights their relevance. A complete elucidation of male fertility involving those hormones will have important clinical implications and also unveil mechanisms and pathways for a therapeutic approach in the treatment of male subfertility/infertility associated with obesity."

This is a very interesting study discussing the most recent and relevant evidence concerning male obesity and infertility. In the last years, this research team published several articles providing evidence that lifestyle factors and dietary habits play a key role on the reproductive health of males. This team emphasizes that policymakers and media should pay serious attention to these findings that point to this global health problem.