Trekking at high altitudes damages spermatozoa. But in 90 days everything is back to normal
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Everyone knows that the external environment influences the female hormonal structure: we all know, to say, that a strong physical or even mental stress can anticipate, postpone or even interrupt the menstrual cycle. Much less is known about how much and why a strong, more or less prolonged stress modifies the production process of male gametes, spermatozoa.
Here, a high altitude trek, which is a bit of a sum of many stresses: physical stress (think of the tiredness of the ascent), psychological (think of the mental weight of the idea of an unexpected event), thermal (it’s cold, in high mountains), hypoxic (rarefied oxygen at high altitudes), can be very useful in understanding the phenomena that influence spermatogenesis and consequently male fertility.
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The scientific expedition
Well, there was a high altitude trek, so useful. It is the company linked to Lobuje Peak-Pyramid: Exploration & Physiology 2022the international scientific project that enlisted 22 Italians, men and women between 20 and 60 who have faced an 18-day journey (from 20 October to 8 November) in the Himalayas, as reported by the Dire agency that followed the event.
All sports participants but non-agonists at the end of the expedition will be monitored in the Pyramid International Laboratory-Observatory, a scientific base located in Lobuche on the southern slope of Mount Everest at 5000 meters above sea level. The project involves doctors and psychologists from 12 Italian and foreign universities and 7 international research centers to study the physiological, clinical and psychological parameters of the 22 trekkers before, during and after the expedition, and their adaptive responses to high altitude.
One of the objectives of the scientific expedition (there are several: from the study of the effects of walking on the musculoskeletal system to those on the DNA of sex cells, passing through the psychological aspects) is to investigate spermatogenesis, in fact.
“Through tests on the participants before, during and after the expedition, we will soon understand if such intense physical stress is able to reduce the number of spermatozoa and influence their ‘fertilizing’ capacity, that is to penetrate the female egg and fertilize it. understand if, how and why altitude, temperature, physical and mental exertion and hypoxia affect the production process of male gametes “, says Andrea Garollaendocrinologist and andrologist and associate professor of Endocrinology at the University of Padua and one of the experts participating in the ‘Lobuje Peak-Pyramid: Exploration & Physiology 2022’.
“We expect this impact to occur, because our organism in difficult conditions focuses on vital functions such as cardiac and respiratory functions, to the detriment of other less fundamental functions, such as fertility and reproduction,” adds Garolla. Garolla is one of the authors of an Italian pilot study published in theInternational Journal of Molecular Science who had already investigated the relationship between high altitude and spermatogenesis.
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What do we already know about trekking and spermatozoa
The work published by Garolla and his colleagues was conducted in 2021 on 5 men who also trekked for 19 days in the Himalayas. “It was a pilot study carried out on a few participants, also in that case the follow up (the period in which people were monitored and monitored with clinical examinations and tests, ed) was 50 days from the return of the mission “, says the endocrinologist.
In the case of the current study, however, not only is the sample larger, but the follow-up is also longer. “Exactly – confirms the expert – The participants in this scientific expedition will be monitored for many parameters, for example also for the production of sex hormones, and above all for more than three months: a very important data, because 90 days is precisely the time. necessary to complete a full cycle of spermatogenesis “.
Less sperm and less protected
How did things go when the 2021 expedition returned? “The number of spermatozoa had only slightly decreased compared to before the departure, but the volume of seminal fluid was substantially reduced”, says the andrologist. The seminal fluid is that in which spermatozoa swim, is produced by the prostate and seminal vesicles and contains various protective factors of the gametes.
“In addition to this – the expert continues – the stress of trekking had also profoundly altered the antioxidant mechanisms, that is the phenomenon that protects cells and organs, therefore also spermatozoa and prostate and testicles, from oxidative stress caused by excessive production. of oxygen free radicals. We also saw that after the expedition the membrane of the male sex cells had changed, a structure that plays an important role in the fertilization process of the egg. ” About 50 days after returning from the expedition the sperm count had increased but had not returned to pre-trek levels, oxidative stress had improved but cell membranes remained altered and seminal fluid was still below volume values normal.
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The hypothesis: after 90 days everything is as before
The hypothesis of the researchers is that the alterations are reversible “we expect – says the endocrinologist – to confirm the results obtained with the pilot study and that after 90 days from the return from the expedition all the seminal parameters will return to normal in all the participating men. at the studio”.
Spermatogenesis and male fertility are delicate processes, of which there is still too little talk and for a short time “it is so – concludes Garolla – and it shouldn’t. While mothers take their daughters to the gynecologist for control, fathers do not go with their children. males from a specialist. Doing it, even just at the end of sexual development, around 18 years old, would already be a good thing “.
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