Objective: To investigate the trend of change in the sperm concentration of Chinese fertile males from 1984 to 2019.
Methods: We searched CNKI, CQVIP and Wanfang Database for literature relevant to human sperm concentration published from 1984 to 2019, and analyzed the trend of change in the sperm concentration of fertile men in China in the past 35 years.
Results: A total of 9 495 publications were identified, of which 73 with 11 606 subjects were included. Based on the results of fitting calculation, the perm concentration of the males declined significantly from 98.8486 ×10⁶/ml in 1984 to 72.5531 ×10⁶/ml in 2019, with a mean decrease of 0.7513 ×10⁶/ml annually (P < 0.01), and the reduction was more significant in North than in South China (－1.2754 vs －0.4587 ×10⁶/ml, P = 0.01).
Conclusions: The sperm concentration of fertile Chinese men was decreasing in the past 35 years, which might be related to unhealthy living habits and environmental pollution.
Keywords: regression analysis; semen quality; sperm concentration.