Potential dads-to-be are probably better off laying off the tofu!
Research by the Harvard School of Public Health has shown that soy products can lower a man's sperm count. In tests, the average sperm concentration of regular soy-eaters was 41 million fewer than is usual.
Experts are now trying to discover if oestrogenic compounds found in soy are responsible for the lowered sperm count. Foods such as tofu, soya milk and vegetarian soya meat substitutes contain isoflavones. These are chemicals which can have similar effects to the human hormone oestrogen.
However, Dr Allan Pacey, fertility expert at the University of Sheffield and secretary of the British Fertility Society, has pointed out that soy is widely eaten in Asia, where there is little evidence of a decline in fertility.
French research earlier this year revealed that men also have a 'biological clock' and a successful pregnancy is less likely when a man is over 35.
Latest research also points to the fact that if a man is in his late 30s, the chance of his partner miscarrying is higher and for couples in the study where the man was over 40, one third of pregnancies ended in miscarriage.
July 2008
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