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Air-conditioned environments do not prevent deterioration of human semen quality during the summer
R J Levine1, M H Brown, M Bell
1Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
Objective:
To determine if air conditioning might mitigate summer reductions in semen quality.
Design:
Prospective study of semen quality in summer and winter.
Setting:
Normal human volunteers were studied in the setting of a fertility laboratory.
Patients, Participants:
Two groups of volunteers were selected from the vicinity of New Orleans: 64 men who worked indoors during the summer in air-conditioned environments and 76 others who worked outdoors.
Interventions:
None.
Main Outcome Measures:
Parameters of manual semen analysis were examined for seasonal and group differences.
Results:
Remarkably similar reductions in semen quality during summer as compared with winter were observed in both indoor and outdoor workers, respectively, with regard to the following parameters of semen quality: 19% and 19% in sperm concentration, 25% and 27% in total sperm per ejaculate, 17% and 20% in motile sperm concentration, 13% and 15% in percent sperm with normal morphology, and 23% and 23% in concentration of morphologically normal motile sperm.
Conclusions:
These findings do not support the hypothesis that the heat of the summer is detrimental to male reproductive capacity. The available evidence suggests instead a possible role of photoperiod in causing the seasonal changes in semen quality.