Better, faster sperm means winter and spring is the peak time to conceive

If you happen to know of many women who are falling pregnant at the moment, a popular phrase you may use to describe the situation could be “There’s something in the water!”

However, according to Israeli scientists, it may also be due to the fact that sperm quality is at its peak during the winter and spring months and right now could be the optimum time for couples to try for a baby. The scientists say this could possibly explain why there are such a high proportion of births occurring during the autumn months of the year.

For the study, Professor Eliahu Levitas and his colleagues, from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, analysed 6,455 semen samples obtained from men treated for infertility at their clinic between January 2006 and July 2009.

Writing in American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the researchers describe how they discovered that during winter there was evidence of sperm in greater numbers, faster swimming speeds and fewer abnormalities in the semen. After spring, the researchers claim there was a steady decline in sperm quality.

From the 6,455 samples, 4,960 had a normal sperm production, and 1,495 were defined as ‘abnormal’ which included factors such as a low sperm count. According to The World Health Organization, a normal sperm count is classified as at least 16 million sperm for each millilitre of semen.

It takes around 70 days for the body to generate a sperm cell and with this in mind, it was determined that men with a normal sperm production actually had healthier sperm during the winter season – producing about 70 million sperm per millilitre of semen during this period.

Delving a little deeper, it was found that around 5% of these sperm had ‘fast’ motility, which is the ability of a sperm to swim towards an egg. Ultimately this means there is a higher chance of a couple having a baby.

In comparison, during the spring time there was approximately 68 million sperm per millilitre of semen produced, and only 3% were found to be ‘fast’.

Interestingly though, a similar pattern was not evident for men with abnormal sperm production rates. In these men, better sperm was produced during spring and better motility began from autumn.

The researchers comment: “Based on our results the (normal) semen will perform better in winter, whereas infertility cases related to low sperm counts should be encouraged to choose spring and fall.”
Dr. Edmund Sabanegh, chairman of the urology department at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic, was not involved with the study but says there have been similar trends in animals too in regards to their breeding seasons.

He says: “The hard part of this is really sorting out what factor is accounting for this.” Dr. Sabanegh does not believe that doctors will now specifically instruct men with infertility problems to wait until winter or spring to try and conceive a child. “We would continue to encourage them to try regardless of the season, and they may benefit from interventions or treatments.” Sedentary lifestyles and environmental factors could be connected to an overall decline in sperm quality for men around the world and Dr. Sabanegh added: “It’s becoming more certain that our fertility is seasonal and affected by complex things in our environment that change it.”

Eating nuts whilst pregnant could stop children developing asthma

Eating nuts during pregnancy can reduce the risk of children developing asthma, according to research carried out by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, Bostonand the Statens Serum Institute of Copenhagen, Denmark.

In the study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, researchers examined the relationship between nut intake during pregnancy, and allergic disease outcomes, in early and later childhood of their offspring. The study was published in the peer reviewed Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

In the past women had been advised to avoid eating peanuts during pregnancy and while breast feeding, if they or the father had a family history of allergic conditions. Parents were also recommended not to give peanuts to children, until they are at least three years old to avoid sensitisation.

But in 2008 the Food Safety Agency (FSA), recommended the advice be dropped, after increasing expert advice and scientific evidence, that avoiding peanuts in early life was making the allergy problem worse. The advice had been in place since 1998 and was partly blamed for the rise of nut hysteria, with parents and children becoming increasingly worried about exposure to peanuts.
Now the Department of Health says, “Women can choose to eat peanuts or food containing peanuts, as part of a healthy balanced diet, unless mothers are allergic to them, or they have been advised not to by their health professional.”

Between 1996 and 2002, Danish women were enrolled in the study during their first antenatal visit. This study included 61,908 women who had a single baby and who had completed all questionnaires.
A 360 item food frequency questionnaire was given at around 25 weeks of pregnancy. This asked about snack consumption in the past month, separately assessing peanut and pistachio intake and the intake of nuts and almonds. Women were questioned about childhood asthma when the child was 18 months and 7 years old.

At 18 months they were asked whether a diagnosis of childhood asthma had been confirmed by a doctor, whether there were wheeze symptoms, and the number of wheeze episodes since birth. At 7 years of age, asthma cases were defined as those who self-reported doctor diagnosed asthma, plus wheezing symptoms in the past 12 months. The presence of other allergies, such as hay fever, was also reported at 7 years of age.

The researchers then looked at the association between nut consumption and the development of asthma, wheezing, or other allergies. The results were that a total of 61% of women (37,323) reported no peanut and tree nut intake during pregnancy, 3% of women (1,639) consumed peanuts one or more times per week, and 9% consumed tree nuts one or more times per week.

The researchers found a general inverse relationship between peanut or tree nut consumption and asthma at 18 months. There was a trend that consumption of peanuts and tree nuts, once monthly and two to three times monthly, significantly reduced risk of asthma compared to no consumption.
In conclusion the researchers stated that, “the results do not suggest that women should decrease peanut and tree nut intake during pregnancy, and that consumption of peanuts and tree nuts during pregnancy, might even decrease the risk of allergic disease development in children.”

This conclusion was backed up by Malayka Rahman, research analysis and communications officer at Asthma UK, who said, “This study suggests that eating peanuts and tree nuts during pregnancy, might decrease the risk of children developing allergic conditions, including asthma.”

Pregnant women who work too hard risk having a smaller baby

It seems pregnant women are always being told different things may harm their baby, or to avoid certain foods, etc. It is common knowledge that smoking and drinking in particularly are most harmful to a developing foetus inside the mother’s womb and this is a subject we reported almost a year ago. Now however, pregnant women need to start taking extra precautions in the workplace according to a study to emerge from The Netherlands.

Scientists based at the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, thoroughly quizzed over 4,600 pregnant working women during the years of 2002 to 2006. They waited until the women were at the halfway stage of their pregnancies and then asked questions such as how many hours each week they worked, how much of the day they spent standing on their feet, walking and also the kind of work they were involved in. The scientists documented the size of each baby throughout the duration of the latter half of each pregnancy and also once the baby was born they measured its size.

The results of the study have been made available in the journal ‘Occupational and Environmental Medicine’. All women who were recruited for the study were employed within teaching, childcare and sales positions. Half said they worked between 25 to 39 hours each week and a quarter even worked over 40 hours every week. It was found that 38% of the women spent a long period of the working day on their feet and of that total, almost half said they were walking for extended time periods. In addition, 4% of the total said that they worked evening shifts and 6% worked in a job where they had to do heavy lifting.

At the end of the study it was noted that generally, those who clocked over 25 hours of work a week, gave birth to babies with a head circumference that was 1cm smaller than the rest. Moreover, the women who worked more hours also were found to have babies that weighed approximately between 148g and 198g less than those working fewer hours. Experts say that the results would suggest that if the pregnant woman was standing up more at work, this could hinder the babies’ growth and development.

The authors gave their opinions of the information obtained from the study and commented, “We believe that optimising the work environment is important, since participation of women in the reproductive age in the workforce continues to increase.” They further added that it is advisable for women to try to refrain from doing shift and night work, prolonged periods of standing and limit any physical exertion in the workplace during their pregnancies.