The phytoestrogens in soy appear to protect against cancer, but might they reduce male fertility?
Soy Hormones and Male Infertility
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What about soybeans, though? The phytoestrogens in soy protect against cancer—both men and women—but might they decrease male fertility? Fox News thinks so, and they’re “Fair and Balanced.”
Fact, or fiction? Fiction, and it’s interesting why. The study did find that soy decreased sperm concentration, but did not significantly affect the sperm count itself. How can you have the same number of sperm, but a lower concentration? Because of a larger ejaculate volume. Soy appears to stimulate the prostate gland to produce a larger load of ejaculate fluid, but the actual number of sperm remains the same.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
Image thanks to brownpau via Flickr.
What about soybeans, though? The phytoestrogens in soy protect against cancer—both men and women—but might they decrease male fertility? Fox News thinks so, and they’re “Fair and Balanced.”
Fact, or fiction? Fiction, and it’s interesting why. The study did find that soy decreased sperm concentration, but did not significantly affect the sperm count itself. How can you have the same number of sperm, but a lower concentration? Because of a larger ejaculate volume. Soy appears to stimulate the prostate gland to produce a larger load of ejaculate fluid, but the actual number of sperm remains the same.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
Image thanks to brownpau via Flickr.
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Soy Hormones and Male Infertility
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
Also check out this video on prostate health and plant-based diets: Prostate vs. Plants.
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