Effects of Paternal Age and Cigarette Smoking on Human Semen Parameters: A Retrospective Study on Infertile Couples

The purpose of this study was to estimate and analyze the causes of male infertility in Fertility and IVF center in Maternity Teaching Hospital in Hawler city-Iraq, and to determine the effect of paternal age and smoking habits on basic semen parameters (count x10/ml, motility, and normal morphology). This study was carried out retrospectively over two years period extended from Jan.2011 to Dec.2012 on 1055 infertile couples attended Fertility and IVF center of Maternity Teaching Hospital in Hawler city Capital of Kurdistan-Iraq, among them 368 (34.8 %) were male factor infertility among 368 men, 142 (13.45 %) were azoospermic, 687 (65.2 %) were female factor infertility with unknown causes. The largest male diagnostic category was men with unknown cause (43 %). Beyond this, varicocele (17.2 %), then male accessory gland infection (12.9 %) after that obstructive (12.6 %). However, ejaculatory dysfunction, congenital abnormality, chromosomal abnormality, and male descended testes were very infrequent. Men were divided into two groups according to smoking habit, 198 of them were smoker and 230 of them were nonsmoker. The obtained mean of semen parameters were lower in nonsmoker than smoker and this difference was not significant statistically.1036 men were separated into seven groups according to their ages. The result showed that the mean and SD of all three semen parameters for men age 50 lower than other age groups and this difference was statistically significant for total motility by LSD test with P= 0.012, and for normal morphology 0.014. so in conclusion the influence of paternal age on semen parameters was significant.