Research suggests that infertility among males caused by abnormalities in semen and sperm have an increased risk of an earlier death than males with normal semen and sperm, HealthDay news reports.

For the study, Dr. Michael Eisenberg of Stanford University's School of Medicine and his associates went over and reviewed 12,000 medical records of men between the ages of 20 to 50 in order to determine if there was any merit to their theory.

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Results of study showed that sperm activity and concentration, low semen volume, total sperm count, and total active sperm count is linked to a higher death risk. The shape of the sperm did not factor in with the risk.

Men who had two or more abnormalities in sperm and semen were 2.3 times more likely to have an increased risk of early death than those without abnormalities.

Given that reproduction is part of human nature, it only reinforces the idea that if "you can't make sperm, there are probably other things your body can't do as well," Eisenberg said.

He suggests that low testosterone levels could also be a cause for these sperm abnormalities since it is an important male hormone that has been previously connected with longevity.

Dr. Natan Bar-Chama of the Icahn School of Medicine in New York City, who was not involved in the study, said that these findings called for more in-depth studies to ascertain and establish the causes and effects of male infertility, instead of immediately resorting to assisted reproductive technologies or through artificial or partially artificial means.

He added that it was also essential to determine possible avenues of treatment to address the correlation of increased death rate and abnormalities in the male semen and sperm.

HealthDay noted that this study was in no way to prove that abnormalities in semen equaled early death, but to highlight that there is indeed, a connection between the two factors.

TagsMale, Infertility, Sperm, Semen, Science, Health news, Science news, Sperm quality, Sperm abnormality, semen quality, semen abnormality, sperm count, active sperm