How do your sperm swim?

Male fertility problems are sometimes caused by sperm not moving properly - but although scientists can see if sperm aren't moving or are swimming backwards, their normal patterns of movement are not usually closely monitored.  Now, scientists in the States have tracked sperm using 3D techniques to see exactly how they move.  They followed 1, 500 sperm, monitoring how they swam to try to understand more about their motility and found that rather than swimming in completely straight lines, most follow slightly curved routes, and a small percentage will swim in circular whirls...

You can read more about the research on the website of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

More evidence of damage cannabis causes to fertility

Many people assume that cannabis is really pretty harmless, but there's now yet more evidence to suggest that it has a damaging effect on male fertility. In fact both cannabis and opiates such as heroin and methadone can cause problems with the ability of the sperm to swim properly, or their motility. The new research found that sperm have a number of receptors that are affected by these drugs.

The good news about this is that the damage doesn't have to be lasting if you give up. It takes a few months for sperm to be produced, and you will notice an improvement in sperm motility soon after this time once you stop.

Fertility risk for painters and decorators

There's always a lot of speculation about exposure to chemicals and infertility, and now a new study has shown that men who work as painters and decorators may be putting their fertility at risk if they use products containing glycol ethers.

The study surveyed men at fourteen fertility clinics across the UK, and found that painters and decorators who used products such as water-based paints containing glycol ethers on a regular basis were two and a half times more likely to have poor sperm motility. Sperm should swim forward in a straight line fairly quickly, and those with poor motility may move erratically, or just twitch about rather than moving ahead, which makes them less likely to fertilise an egg suggessfully.

The research was carried out by a team from the University of Sheffield, and published in the BMJ journal Occupational Environmental Medicine. You can read more about it on the University website at www.shef.ac.uk