Relatives of men with fertility issues may be at higher risk of cancer

The relatives of men who produce very little or no sperm may be more likely to develop certain types of cancer than the general population

By Christa Lesté-Lasserre

22 February 2024

The study looked at men who produced less than 1.5 million sperm per millilitre of semen, which is considered very low, or no sperm at all

Joshua Resnick/Shutterstock

The relatives of men with fertility issues may be at an increased risk of cancer, with the odds varying considerably from one family to the next.

A study suggests that certain relatives who are within three generations of such men are more likely to develop a range of cancers, including those affecting the colon, testicles and uterus. But the risk varies between family lineages and also depends on whether the man is infertile or has low fertility.

Male infertility has been linked to multiple health issues, such as cardiovascular conditions. Previous research has also pointed towards links between male infertility and an increased cancer risk for such men’s relatives.

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Joemy Ramsay at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and her colleagues suspected this may vary among families. To find out, they analysed the sperm counts of 360 men who produced less than 1.5 million sperm per millilitre of semen, which is considered very low, and 426 who produced no sperm at all. These men were age-matched to more than 5600 others who had at least one biological child. The researchers do not know if any of the participants were transgender.

They then acquired information from Utah databases about any cancer diagnoses among the men’s first, second and third-degree relatives.