A Preliminary Study: Impact of the vegan diet on sperm quality and sperm oxidative stress values

Objective To compare sperm characteristics of vegan with non-vegan males in order to address the effects of the vegan diet on male fertility.

Materials This study was based on semen analyses of 20 males including 10 vegan males who had strictly vegetables diet with no animal products and 10 non-vegan males.

Methods Sperm quality was assessed following the World Health Organisation Sperm criteria (Fifth edition 2010). The oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) was evaluated by the MiOXSYS analyzer. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS.

Results Our data showed that total sperm concentration and total motility were significantly higher in the vegan group compared with non-vegan group [(219.4 ± 78.3 m/mL vs 144.7 ± 109.2 m/mL) and (60.8 ± 6.1 vs 51.9 ± 7.5) respectively; p < 0.01]. Furthermore, percentage of fast motile sperm in non-vegans males (1.7 ± 2.7 %) was significantly lower than it in vegans males (18.7 ± 4.8 %) (p < 0.0001). In addition, percentage of non-progressive and immotile sperm was higher in non-vegan group compared with vegan group [(8.3 ± 2.5 % vs 5.8 ± 1.5 %; p < 0.01) and (48.1 ± 7.5 % vs 40.8 ± 7.8 %; p < 0.05) respectively]. Vegans had statistically significant lower pH compared with non-vegans (8.3 ± 0.13 versus 8.72 ± 0.16 respectively; p < 0.0001). One of the highest significant difference (p < 0.0001) were obtained in sORP (mV / 10⁶ sperm / mL) values where vegan had 0.51 ± 0.21 versus non-vegan 1.52± 0.65.

Summary Our study showed that the vegan-based food intake increased sperm quality. However, further studies including larger cohorts are warranted.

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Publication History

Article published online:
07 October 2020