Abstract

PIP: In order to further investigate the findings of earlier studies the authors conducted a study of semen quality in 437 consecutively seen male partners of infertile couples and excluded 181 men who exhibited factors which could have influenced semen quality. A group of 97 men with varicocele was considered separately. Of the remaining 159 men, 101 were nonsmokers and 58 were smokers, age being approximately 31 years. The average percentage of normal spermatozoa was 44.7% for the group of 101 nonsmokers and 44.8% for the group of smokers. Average sperm motility, mean sperm count and frequency distribution of sperm were also not very different between the 2 groups. Amount of cigarettes smoked per day did not matter. The group of 97 men with varicocele which was analyzed separately showed no differences between smokers and nonsmokers although when compared with the group of 159 men without varicocele a significantly higher percentage of men with varicocele had sperm counts of 20 million/ml. It is difficult to explain the differences between these findings and those that claim that smoking does affect sperm quality. The subject of possible detrimental effects of cigarette smoking on semen quality is controversial and studies of larger groups need to be done.