Are semen parameters related to birth weight?
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 19, 2026

Sperm Collection of Differential Quality Using Density Gradient Centrifugation
Published on: November 29, 2018
Céline Faure1, Charlotte Dupont2, Pascale Chavatte-Palmer3
1Reproductive Biology Unit, Centre d'Étude et de Conservation des Oeufs et du Sperme, Jean Verdier Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Bondy, France; Nutritional Epidemiology Unit, Unité de Recerche en Epidmiologie Nutritionnelle (UREN), U1125, Unités Mixtes de Recherche (UMR), U557, Institut National Scientifique d'Etudes et de Recherches Médicales, Institut National de Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM), Centre de Recherche en Nutrition Humaine Ile de France), Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris 13 University, Bobigny, France.
Unlabelled:
Several experimental models suggest a link between maternal nutrition during gestation and reproductive function in offspring, but the impact of birth weight on male fertility in adulthood in humans is poorly documented. To study whether birth weight is associated with unexplained male subfertility later in life, we evaluated the relationship between birth weight and sperm parameters in adulthood in white subfertile men, partners of couples with primary idiopathic subfertility, and fertile men recruited within the ALIFERT (Diet and Its Relationship with Couple Infertility) study. Total sperm count, progressive motility, and sperm DNA fragmentation were analyzed in sperm, and metabolic assays were performed on blood. Birth weight was associated with sperm DNA fragmentation and inversely correlated with total sperm count, underlining the importance of the in utero environment for male reproductive function.
Clinical Trial Registration Number:
NCT01093378.
Related Concept Videos
Sperm Structure and Semen Composition
Spermatogenesis
Regression Toward the Mean
Testing a Claim about Mean: Known Population SD
Estimating a population mean requires the samples to be distributed normally. The data should be collected from the randomly selected samples having no sampling bias. The sample size needed to be higher than 30, and most importantly, the population standard deviation should be already known.
In most realistic situations, the population standard deviation is often unknown, but in rare circumstances, when it...
Infertility in Males
z Scores and Area Under the Curve

