Endocrine Abstracts

There are robust data from all parts of the World that the incidence of testicular germ cell cancer, which is often associated with dysgenesis and poor spermatogenesis in adjacent ‘normal’ testicular tissue, has been increasing during the past 50 years. There is also evidence of widespread poor semen quality among young men in European countries, where there also have been reports on declining semen quality. Although the latter findings have been subject to controversy, recent large studies of young men from Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Finland and Japan have shown that 10–15% of the men had sperm concentrations at levels indicating a high risk of need of assisted reproduction in case they wanted to father a child, and an even larger group of young men in these countries seem to be at risk of a prolonged waiting time to pregnancy. In addition, cryptorchidism and hypospadias remain among the most common congenital abnormalities among boys. These trends taken together with recent reports, showing that 8% of birth cohorts are now born after assisted reproduction, indicate that male infertility may significantly contribute to the decline in fertility rates seen in Europe and many Asian countries. A hypothesis will be presented that modern lifestyle with its wide exposure to endocrine disrupters may play a role together with adverse effects of smoking and obesity.