Antidepressants: Can Cost Fertility

Posted by Christina Crease

at September 29, 2008

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According to a study, Australian men having antidepressants can destroy their sperms and opportunities to have kids. US research published in New Scientist magazine has discovered that the drug Paroxetine, advertised in Australia as Aropax, considerably reduces the sperm quality.

The group from Cornell Medical Centre in New York place 35 healthy men on the drug for five weeks, with tests after four weeks displaying no change in sperm quantity, size or movement. But a test discovered that on average, the ratio of sperm cells with disjointed DNA increased from 13.8 percent before getting Paroxetine to 30.3 percent after just four weeks.

The lead researcher Peter Schlegel said the figures were “clinically important”, as it took men from moderately fertile to fundamentally infertile. Professor Michael Chapman, director of infertility at IVF Australia, reported that there were proofs to recommend new generation antidepressants called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) affect fertility. “This is something we have thought for a moment, with more proof aiming in this direction,” Chapman said, according to ‘Herald Sun’ report.

Figures display an elevating number of Australians are being diagnosed with medications for depression, with around 12 million prescriptions written each year. Chapman said the use could be distributing to the raising number of Australian couples with infertility troubles. The pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, which advertises Paroxetine, said it was recently evaluating the investigators’ discoveries.

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