Parental Separation and Semen Quality in Young Men: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Anne Gaml-Sørensen; Nis Brix; Gunnar Toft; Tine Brink Henriksen; Andreas Ernst; Linn Håkonsen Arendt; Sandra Søgaard Tøttenborg; Katia Keglberg Hærvig; Karin Sørig Hougaard; Jens Peter Ellekilde Bonde; Cecilia Høst Ramlau-Hansen

doi:10.2147/CLEP.S348763

Parental Separation and Semen Quality in Young Men: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Clin Epidemiol. 2022 Jan 26:14:127-140. doi: 10.2147/CLEP.S348763. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Anne Gaml-Sørensen¹, Nis Brix^{1

2}, Gunnar Toft^{3

4}, Tine Brink Henriksen⁵, Andreas Ernst^{1

6}, Linn Håkonsen Arendt^{1

7}, Sandra Søgaard Tøttenborg⁸, Katia Keglberg Hærvig^{8

9}, Karin Sørig Hougaard^{9

10}, Jens Peter Ellekilde Bonde^{8

9}, Cecilia Høst Ramlau-Hansen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health, Research Unit for Epidemiology, Bartholins Allé 2, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, 8000, Denmark.
² Department of Clinical Genetics, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N, 8200, Denmark.
³ Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University, Aarhus N, 8200, Denmark.
⁴ Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N, 8200, Denmark.
⁵ Perinatal Epidemiology Research Unit, Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N, 8200, Denmark.
⁶ Department of Urology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N, 8200, Denmark.
⁷ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N, 8200, Denmark.
⁸ Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, Copenhagen NV, 2400, Denmark.
⁹ Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, København K, 1014, Denmark.
¹⁰ National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen East, 2100, Denmark.

Abstract

Purpose: Parental separation may be a stressful life event with the potential to influence hormonal regulation of offspring reproductive health and thereby affect semen quality in young men. We aimed to study the association between parental separation in pregnancy or in childhood and semen quality in young men and to study whether the timing of parental separation in childhood was important.

Patients and methods: We conducted a follow-up study of 1058 young men born 1998-2000 from the Fetal Programming of Semen Quality (FEPOS) cohort nested within the Danish National Birth Cohort. Data on parental separation were obtained longitudinal by self-report. Parental separation in pregnancy was dichotomized, and parental separation in childhood was both dichotomized and categorized according to the timing of parental separation (from birth, from early childhood (0-5 years), and from late childhood (6-10 years)). Semen volume, concentration, total sperm count, motility, morphology, and testes volume were analysed using multivariable negative binomial regression models.

Results: Parental separation in pregnancy was not associated with semen quality. The association between parental separation in childhood and semen quality differed with the timing of parental separation. Parental separation from birth was associated with higher semen volume of 25%, 95% CI (-5; 64); higher total sperm count of 62%, 95% CI (-6; 179); and higher proportion of morphologically normal spermatozoa of 59%, 95% CI (20; 111). Parental separation in early childhood was associated with lower semen volume of -14%, 95% CI (-24; -3); lower concentration of -15%, 95% CI (-28; 1); lower total sperm count of -17%, 95% CI (-32; 2) and lower testes volume of -11%, 95% CI (-18; -3).

Conclusion: The timing of parental separation was important, and parental separation from birth was associated with higher semen quality, and parental separation in early childhood was associated with lower semen quality.

Keywords: epidemiology; male infertility; parental divorce; semen analysis; sperm quality; stressful life-events.

Grants and funding

This study is part of the ReproUnion collaborative study, co-financed by the European Union, Intereg V ÖKS (20200407). The FEPOS project was further funded by the Lundbeck Foundation (R170-2014-855), the Capital Region of Denmark, Medical doctor Sofus Carl Emil Friis and spouse Olga Doris Friis’s Grant, Axel Muusfeldt’s Foundation (2016-491), A.P. Møller Foundation (16-37), the Health Foundation and Dagmar Marshall’s Fond. In addition, this study was supported by Aarhus University and Independent Research Fund Denmark (9039-00128B).