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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday November 08 2016, @08:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the switching-to-boxers-doesn't-help dept.

A study compared 54 men conceived with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI, a type of in vitro fertilisation) to 57 men conceived naturally. Among the IVF group, sperm counts and motility were (on average) lower, lending support to the idea that such male fertility problems—which ICSI can overcome—can be inherited.

From the New Scientist abstract:

Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a technique that injects sperm directly into an egg to fertilise it. This method is commonly used to overcome various types of male infertility – including low sperm count, abnormal sperm, or sperm that doesn't move well – and was used in about half of IVF treatments using non-frozen embryos in the UK in 2013.

Because the method can allow non-motile sperm to create an embryo, scientists have suspected that it can pass genetic causes of infertility to the next generation. Now there is some evidence that this could be the case.

Comparing 54 men who were conceived using ICSI with 57 men whose parents conceived naturally, Andre Van Steirteghem at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and his colleagues have found that the ICSI men had almost half the sperm concentration of the control group, and a two-fold lower count of motile sperm.

"These findings are not unexpected," says Steirteghem. "Before ICSI was carried out, prospective parents were informed that it may well be that their sons may have impaired sperm like their fathers." These parents still decided to try the technique, thinking that their sons could themselves use ICSI if necessary, he says.

coverage:


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  • (Score: 2) by Absolutely.Geek on Tuesday November 08 2016, @10:41PM

    by Absolutely.Geek (5328) on Tuesday November 08 2016, @10:41PM (#424277)

    Not really.

    Heritable == Can be inherited.
    Inherited == Has come from your parents.

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    Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
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