TY - JOUR
T1 - Recreational Drug Misuse and Its Potential Contribution to Male Fertility Levels’ Decline: A Narrative Review
AU - Schifano, Nicolò
AU - Chiappini, Stefania
AU - Mosca, Alessio
AU - Miuli, Andrea
AU - Santovito, Maria Chiara
AU - Pettorruso, Mauro
AU - Capogrosso, Paolo
AU - Dehò, Federico
AU - Martinotti, Giovanni
AU - Schifano, Fabrizio
A2 - Scherma, Maria
A2 - Fadda, Paola
A2 - Sanna, Fabrizio
A2 - Muntoni, Anna Lisa
N1 - © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
PY - 2022/11/19
Y1 - 2022/11/19
N2 - Recreational drug intake may be associated with a range of medical untoward consequences, including male infertility. However, as the related evidence is still limited, the main outcome of this review is to provide a better understanding of the existence of any association between recreational drug misuse and male fertility levels’ decline. Whilst searching the MEDLINE/PubMed, a comprehensive overview of the literature regarding male infertility and substances of abuse (e.g., phytocannabinoids, opiates/opioids, stimulants, ‘herbal highs’, psychedelics, and ‘novel psychoactive substances) was here undertaken. Due to the paucity of robust, high-quality, empirical, human studies, a narrative strategy was here preferred over a systematic approach. Relevant data are qualitatively analyzed and presented in a table. Although most available evidence is in support of a detrimental role of cannabis on human spermatogenesis, a few remaining studies failed to document any effect of this drug on seminal quality, and it is not clear to which extent this drug impacts fertility rates/time to pregnancy. The current understanding of the impact of opiate-, cocaine- and amphetamine/stimulant-misuse on human reproduction is widely unknown, and most studies dealing with this matter represent only an extrapolation of data derived from specific clinical circumstances. Although the message of ‘no smoking, no alcohol and no street drugs’ should always be offered as good health advice to all patients seeking medical help for fertility issues, robust scientific clinical evidence in support of a direct detrimental impact of recreational drugs on spermatogenesis is scant to date.
AB - Recreational drug intake may be associated with a range of medical untoward consequences, including male infertility. However, as the related evidence is still limited, the main outcome of this review is to provide a better understanding of the existence of any association between recreational drug misuse and male fertility levels’ decline. Whilst searching the MEDLINE/PubMed, a comprehensive overview of the literature regarding male infertility and substances of abuse (e.g., phytocannabinoids, opiates/opioids, stimulants, ‘herbal highs’, psychedelics, and ‘novel psychoactive substances) was here undertaken. Due to the paucity of robust, high-quality, empirical, human studies, a narrative strategy was here preferred over a systematic approach. Relevant data are qualitatively analyzed and presented in a table. Although most available evidence is in support of a detrimental role of cannabis on human spermatogenesis, a few remaining studies failed to document any effect of this drug on seminal quality, and it is not clear to which extent this drug impacts fertility rates/time to pregnancy. The current understanding of the impact of opiate-, cocaine- and amphetamine/stimulant-misuse on human reproduction is widely unknown, and most studies dealing with this matter represent only an extrapolation of data derived from specific clinical circumstances. Although the message of ‘no smoking, no alcohol and no street drugs’ should always be offered as good health advice to all patients seeking medical help for fertility issues, robust scientific clinical evidence in support of a direct detrimental impact of recreational drugs on spermatogenesis is scant to date.
KW - Review
KW - substance abuse
KW - drug abuse
KW - substance dependence
KW - male infertility
U2 - 10.3390/brainsci12111582
DO - 10.3390/brainsci12111582
M3 - Review article
SN - 2076-3425
VL - 12
JO - Brain Sciences
JF - Brain Sciences
IS - 11
M1 - 1582
ER -