Statement on the general reduction in sperm quality.

Over a period of 17 years, 360 young healthy men presented themselves as candidate donors for the sperm bank of the University Hospital of Ghent. Semen characteristics of these men were assessed using unaltered methods, and analysis was performed on the first sample delivered before any donor selection was performed. Sperm motility and morphology, but not the total sperm count per ejaculate, exhibited a highly significant decrease. Over 40% of candidate donors since 1990 exhibited subnormal sperm characteristics, as against only 5% of the group investigated before 1980.