Why is Alcohol not Good for Male Fertility?

Fertility doctors will tell you that sperm perform best when well-maintained with a healthy lifestyle and diet to ensure optimum performance. When a man puts toxins and drugs into his body he can damage his sperm and affect his fertility. Now, new studies are confirming that very high alcohol intake in men is linked with poor fertility and severe effects on sperm. Generally, consumption by men of more than 15 drinks per week is considered high.

Typically the conversation about infertility and alcohol focuses on how much women should drink before and during pregnancy, but research offers compelling evidence that the impact of alcohol on male fertility is a very real problem.

Heavy alcohol use affects fertility in many ways. First of all, it affects your sex life. It often reduces libido (sexual drive) and can also cause erectile dysfunction, which makes it hard to get or keep an erection. It can also lead to problems with ejaculation. Of course, if your sex life is poor, you are less likely to have a baby. 

There is also evidence that excessive drinking affects a man’s hormonal levels. It lowers testosterone levels, follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone. It raises estrogen levels. All of this reduces sperm production. It can also cause shrinking of the testes which can cause impotence or infertility.

Drinking to excess has a significant and wide-ranging effect on sperm, affecting quantity and quality.

Heavy drinkers are likely to have a low sperm concentration and low total sperm count, which means fewer sperm to get to the egg for fertilisation, decreasing the chances of conception. For men with alcoholism, where their chronic heavy drinking is causing liver damage, the effects on sperm are even more pronounced. Many of these men have no sperm production at all. This means no chance of a pregnancy.

Sperm quality can also be affected by heavy alcohol use because of changes in hormones and other chemicals in the body, such as cortisol, glucose, insulin and male hormones. The result is changes in the shape, size and movement of the sperm, in ways that make it harder for the sperm to fertilise the egg, creating a baby.

One effect is a higher incidence of abnormal sperm morphology (size and shape of sperm). Normal sperm have an oval head and a long tail that propels them up the vagina and onwards to meet the egg. Abnormal sperm have head or tail defects, which can hinder their ability to reach and penetrate an egg.

Alcohol also affects sperm motility, which is the the ability of the sperm to move properly (to “swim”). And once again, that affects the sperm’s ability to get where it needs to go to fertilise the egg and create an embryo.

The good news is that effects of alcohol on fertility issues are reversible! It takes about three months for a man to return to healthy sperm production once he quits drinking. This is why many fertility doctors recommend cutting out or reducing alcohol at least three months before trying for a baby.