*Says human reproduction is naturally inefficient

By Sola Ogundipe

Semen quality is frequently used as an indirect measure of male infertility and studies have shown that poor semen quality is responsible for 20-40 percent of infertility in couples in Nigeria.

Worried by the increasing rate of infertility in the country, and in the bid to improve the outcomes of assisted reproduction procedures, Nigerian fertility experts are investigating the common causes of poor semen quality, particularly DNA fragmentation in the sperms of men diagnosed with infertility.

The experts who are conducting the research in Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos, noted that sperm DNA integrity is vital for successful fertilisation, embryo development, pregnancy, and transmission of genetic material to an embryo, and to the resulting baby.

Anomalous sperm DNA fragmentation

Findings revealed that DNA fragmentation is one of the most frequent DNA anomalies in the male gamete (sperm) and it is commonly associated with poor semen quality, low fertilisation rates, impaired embryo quality, pre-implantation development and reduced clinical outcomes in assisted reproduction procedures.

The Medical Director/CEO, Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos, Asaba and Abuja, Dr Abayomi Ajayi, who led the research, told Good Health Weekly that the world is paying more attention to sperm DNA fragmentation because infertility is increasing worldwide.

“People are paying more attention to DNA fragmentation in the sperm. Infertility seems to be increasing worldwide and people are getting more and more concerned we’re trying to solve the problem. The challenge that we still have is in choosing the sperm that has the maximum capability to fertilise the egg, and that’s really a big problem.”

Ajayi, who is an experienced fertility physician and obstetrician/gynecologist, explained that a few years ago, scientists began to investigate the DNA Fragmentation Index (DFI) of the sperm.

“One thing that we know is that what the sperm is going to contribute to the egg is the DNA, and if this DNA is already denatured, then the likelihood that the embryo that will be formed from it will not be of good quality and the probability that it will not be able to become a baby is high.

“So we have started looking at the fragmentation index of the sperm, and there’s more interest in this now. We have been doing this for about five years and we are probably the only centre that has ever released any publication on DFI from this part of the world, and I think we’re going to look more into it also from our own point of view.”

Sperm counts are reducing

Further, Ajayi noted that about 15,000 patients have been investigated on the issue of poor sperm parameters and Nordica Fertility Centre has a lot of data that it can look at to be able to expand the research.

“We did a study a few years ago in which we compared sperm samples from 10 years before to 10 years after, and we saw that the sperm counts of the patients that we are seeing at Nordica were reducing at about 3 percent per annum. We are going to do more on that from this environment this year (2023).

Losing fertility battle

Noting that infertility appears to going higher,  Ajayi said it remains a growing problem that is being fuelled by unhealthy lifestyles.

If you asked me, I think the human race is losing the battle against infertility, because it seems to be going higher. By our lifestyles, we are reducing fertility ourselves.

“We are more sedentary, and call it civilisation. We smoke and drink things that just destroy our sperm. We have invented x-rays and so on and so forth. The weather is changing, the climate is changing, and there are so many other things affecting our fertility.

“So I don’t think we’re winning on the fertility war. But we have more equipment now to fight infertility. Because we have created a problem, we are trying to create a solution for it.”

Inefficient human reproduction

Explaining that human reproduction is naturally inefficient,  Ajayi observed that humans belong to the group of animals whose mode of reproduction is internal.

“In animals that reproduce inside (internally), the efficiency is much lower than for those that reproduce outside (externally). We don’t lay eggs, and our reproduction is more complex and therefore less efficient. The reduced efficiency has to do with nature getting it right.

“We think that over 20 percent of pregnancies are lost. Apart from the fact that you may not be able to get pregnant, even in the pregnancies that are proven, about 10 – 20 percent of them are lost because something is either wrong or because nature just takes care of itself.

It may even be more than 20 percent that is lost because some pregnancies are lost before they are established. So because human reproduction takes place inside, it is not particularly efficient.”