When we talk about alcohol and its relation to fertility, the focus is mostly based on women. We all know that it is very harmful to drink alcohol to a woman during her pregnancy and even before it but what about men? Is it harmful to both genders? Does alcohol affect male fertility? The answer to all of these questions is a big heavy yes. The usage of alcohol or its consumption is harmful to both genders, especially the reproductive systems. This means that alcohol can kill sperm that comes in contact with alcohol.
How Much Alcohol Does It Take to Effect the Sperms?
A lot of people, around in millions, drink alcohol around the world. This is becoming a common practice throughout, but heavy drinking may be injurious to your health and make men less fertile. In 2015, the United States conducted a study in which around 27% of men who were 18 years old or older were binge drinkers. Many studies have shown that when men drink 5 or more drinks of alcohol in a short time frame of 2 hours, they get negative effects on sperm.Â
How can Alcohol Effect Sperm?
Many people around the world lose their fertility due to consuming heavy alcohol. Intake of alcohol can damage your fertility as it can alter the size, shape, motility, and count of the sperm. There are various ways in which the sperms get affected. Those ways include alcohol lowering the level of testosterone which is the hormone that forms follicles and is also a luteinizing hormone, and this reduces the production of sperm.
The consumption of alcohol or heavy alcohol can shrink the size of the testes to make them impotent or infertile. It also changes the gonadotropin, which is a release impacting the production of sperm. It may lead to early or decreased ej*culation and also can affect the shapes, sizes, and movements of sperm.
Causes of Excessiveness of Alcohol Drinking
Many men intake a heavy amount of alcohol. The consumption reaches a height of excessiveness when the drinks rate reaches a level of 4-5 drinks in 2 hours or more than 10 glasses a week. The more the level of alcohol rises in the body, the more elevation is provided to the estrogen, and abnormality of the liver starts with improper or abnormal functioning. This abnormality can affect the level of sperm in the body alongside the alterations in the level of hormones. Alcohol can also be defined as a harmful toxin that can kill the cells that generate sperm in the male’s testes.Â
How Does Alcohol Affect the Normal Sperm Level?
Do you know that a man produces millions of sperm per day? When one takes in alcohol, it breaks down in the body and interferes with the normal structure and movements of sperm. It becomes difficult to say exactly what number or level of alcohol is safe for the male body. Various studies have shown distinctive results. Some of the studies show that 1-2 drinks of alcohol per day can’t cause any harm or are not more harmful, whereas some say that even 1-2 drinks per day are dangerous and harmful.
But when apparent, this is seen that even 1-2 drinks per day can cause little harm to the sperm’s development. According to the experts, about 30 days are required for a sperm to reach the level of maturity, and every time during the period of 30 days when a man drinks, he will alter the shape, size, and development process of the sperm. Doctors advise men not to take in or consume alcohol if they want to reproduce. Over the past 35 years, it has been studied that the sperm of the male has reduced due to alcohol consumption and has declined the overall fertility of a man.Â
Too Dramatic to Kill
As discussed earlier, some say that alcohol is very dangerous for the body if one is trying to reproduce as it kills the sperm in males and reduces the fertility level. On the other hand, some observers say that it is too dramatic to say that the sperm are killed while taking in the alcohol. According to them, you can still drink alcohol occasionally, and it is unlikely for the sperm to get killed in the occasional drinking habits. This sums up that there is still a conflict going on between both the types of researchers and observers, and the results are still unpredictable.
Regular Drinking Habit
Once the men have developed a regular drinking habit, they would start to face the outcomes. The level of sperm gets reduced with regular drinking habits. This means that the more units of drink one would take in a week, the lowlier would be the quality of the sperm being produced by a male’s body.
The quality of sperm decreases to a lower level if one takes in 5 units of alcohol or more per week. Some researchers also say that the reproductive hormones also get a negative effect while drinking more than 5 units of alcohol per week. The results are more obvious for those who consume 25 units of alcohol or more per week. This amount of alcohol is equal to 15 pints of beer.
Heavy Drinking and Its Effect on Sperm Level
When we say that someone has taken in a heavy amount of alcohol, we mean that someone is taking in or consuming at least 40-50 units of alcohol per week. This means that someone is drinking about 24-32 more beers per week. In a simpler way, someone who drinks 4-5 or more bottles of wine per week is equaling 40-50 units of alcohol.
These men have approximately 33% less sperm than those who consume less alcohol or don’t drink. The rate of alteration of sperm morphology is also at higher rate in men who drink heavy amounts of alcohol. Those who are habitual of heavy drinking get a reduced amount of testosterone.
Conclusion
Although the drinking of alcohol doesn’t affect the sperm directly, it should be stopped for the ones who need to reproduce. The amounts of testosterone and the hormones that produce the sperms reduces and alters themselves. These changes in the body result in massive destruction of the body as they can diminish the sperm, their quality gets lower, and they get a change of shape, size, and structure.Â
I am a passionate beer connoisseur with a deep appreciation for the art and science of brewing. With years of experience tasting and evaluating various beers, I love to share my opinions and insights with others and I am always eager to engage in lively discussions about my favorite beverage.
