A new study has revealed that infertile men have higher risk of heart disease and substance abuse disorders compared with fertile men.
Dr. Michael Eisenberg, director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at Stanford University Medical School, in Palo Alto, California said “We found that infertile men developed several chronic diseases in the years following an infertility evaluation.
“What’s interesting is that these are young, healthy men. Prior studies suggested a higher risk of [testicular] cancer or even death. But for the first time, we are seeing higher risk of these metabolic diseases.”
Eisenberg and colleagues collected data on more than 100,000 men from an insurance claims database between 2001 and 2009.
They found that infertile men had a 48 percent higher rate of heart disease and about 30 percent higher odds of diabetes, even after compensating for obesity and smoking. They also had higher rates of alcohol and drug abuse.