Global experts have called for urgent actions to address declining male fertility. 

An international consortium of experts is calling on governments and health systems to acknowledge that male infertility is a common and serious medical condition that may be increasing worldwide, and has provided a first-time roadmap for global action.

Leading scientists from ten countries have compiled a consensus report with ten recommendations, published in Nature Reviews Urology.

It comes as the World Health Organisation estimates that infertility now affects one in six couples of reproductive age, in Australia and globally. 

About half the time, infertility originates from the male.

The report highlights that patients have a right to meaningful diagnoses and targeted treatments, but these are currently unavailable in most cases due to inadequate funding, research gaps, and non-standard clinical practices.

The ten recommendations are:

  1. Governments, health care systems, insurance companies, and the public should understand and acknowledge that male infertility is a common, serious medical condition and patients have a right to meaningful diagnoses and targeted treatments.

  2. Establish a global network of registries and biobanks containing standardised clinical and lifestyle information, and tissue from fertile and infertile men, their partners, and children. Link it to national healthcare data systems.

  3. Implement protocols and incentives to standardise collection of de-identified tissue and clinical/lifestyle data.

  4. Fund more international, collaborative research to understand the interactions and impacts of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors on male fertility in diverse populations.

  5. Integrate genomic sequencing into diagnosis of male infertility.

  6. Develop additional diagnostic tests to improve diagnosis and cause of male infertility.

  7. Rigorously test the impact on male fertility of compounds – especially endocrine-disrupting chemicals – in products, the workplace, and the environment. Implement regulations and policies and develop safe alternatives.

  8. Rigorously test strategies for medically assisted reproduction before they are integrated into clinical practice.

  9. Public education campaigns to promote discussion of male infertility and engagement in health seeking.

  10. Improved training for health care workers to promote male reproductive health across the lifespan.