Society has its own myriad of problems and some of these problems are salient over others on the basis of the imperative resulting from their prevalence rate and danger to life and the normal livelihood. In contemporary society, one of the current problems with such an imperative is infertility. Infertility is a major problem affecting the society today and there are numerous factors that have been attributed to causing the incidence of elevated infertility rates in the society today. Nevertheless, one of the most affected social demographics with regards to infertility is the youth or adolescent demographic. Furthermore, with respect to the youth demographic and its elevated association with the problem of infertility, irrespective of the wide array of causal factors associated with the incidence of infertility, one of the most troubling of these factors is drug and substance use or abuse. A look at the phenomenon would reveal that exposure to specific toxins and drugs and toxins are causal with regards to male infertility. Frivolous use of illicit narcotics and psychotropic substances is an imperative point to consider in the assessment of the etiology of infertility in males. An annual study is being conducted on substance use and health by the Health and Human Services administration. The estimates provided by this survey shows that illicit drugs and psychotropic substance use for the non-institutionalized demographic from the ages of 12 years old and above in the United States offers valid proof to the fact that illicit drug and substance use is rampant among males of the ages with requiring treatment for infertility. Within the age bracket of 25-34, 35-50, and 51 years and above, results concerning substance use under survey for use in the last year was 25%, 15%, and 8%, respectively and drug use in the last month was 15%, 9%, and 5.1%, respectively. The narcotics which have been discovered to detrimentally affect male fertility are opioid narcotics, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines, and anabolic-androgenic steroids (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2010). Therefore on the basis of the aforementioned preamble, this paper shall seek to provide an elucidation of the prevalence of drug use and their negative impact on male fertility.
Research Questions
This paper shall proceed in a bid to provide comprehensive answers as to the following questions:
What is the impact of illicit drug use on male fertility?
Objectives
Based on the aforementioned questions, this study shall be for the purpose of providing vivid and comprehensive elucidations for the negative impact of the illicit drug use on male fertility.
Methodology
This study shall employed a qualitatively oriented desk research of secondary resources in fulfilling its set objectives which is to elucidate upon the detrimental effect of illicit drug and substance use on male fertility. Thus, this largely be comprised of a review of secondary literature from studies relating and relevant to the topic concerning illicit drug use and male fertility. These secondary resources were drawn from various journal articles, books and documents relevant to the topic. These were be acquired via a web search using the Google search engine with the following keywords: drug use and fertility, drug abuse and infertility, drug use and infertility. Among results that returned from the search query, only those that were deemed as being relevant to the research topic were chosen for use in this paper.
Illicit Drugs and their effects on Male Fertility
The elucidation of the impact of narcotics and psychotropic drugs on infertility rates shall be elucidated according to the major drugs and narcotics in use today. These are marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamines.
Marijuana
A look at Marijuana reveals that in the United States alone, it ranka as the most used psychotropic substance among the illicit drugs according to the 2009 NSDUH survey. The survey revealed that 20% of males within the ages of 25-35, 116% for males within the ages of 36-50, and 5.4% of males from the age of 50 above concurring to the use of marijuana in the last year and 12%, 6%, and 4% of males within these respective ages concurring to using Marijuana in the last month. There was an increase from 9% to 10% in the rates of past year Cannabis use between the years 2008 and 2009 respectively within the male demographic of the 25 years and above (SAMHSA, 2010).
Impact on male fertility
It is important to note that Marijuana, composed of dried flowers and from the Cannabis sativa plant, is smoked for the purpose of releasing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which is a psychoactive cannabinoid compound. It was discovered in the 1990’s that the human body also secretes cannabinoid compound (Devane et al, 1992). One of the most researched cannabinoid compounds are the anandamides and endocannabinoids. Many cells in the human body have endocannabinoid receptors. Some of these cells are immune cells, neurons, muscle cells, and testicular cells and most significantly on the middle and the head of the male sperm cell (Howlett et al, 2002; Schuel et al, 2002; Rossato et al, 2005).
Research studies by Cone et al., (1986), Vescovi et al., (1992) and Kolodny et al., (1974) concurrently come to the conclusion that THC has a detrimental effect on the reproductive physiology of men. Their studies revealed that in examining testosterone levels, heavy and exclusive marijuana users had considerably lesser plasma testosterone levels in comparison to males within the same age brackets who had never smoked marijuana and the lowered testosterone levels were directly proportional to the doses used by respective individuals. In the study by Kolodny et al., it was discovered that the reduced testosterone secretion levels consequently led to a reduction in spermatogenesis among chronic exclusive marijuana smokers. A reduction in sperm motility has been found to be caused by an activation of any endocannabinoid receptor on the spermatozoa cell by either THC or anandamide in a way that is dependent on the dose (Rossato et al, 2005; Whan et al, 2006).
Cocaine
Estimates provided by the NSDUH in the year 2009 provide the reports of a prevalent frequency in cocaine use for men in the age categories of 25-35, 36-50, and 51 years and older at 4%, 2%, 1% for the last year and 2%, 1%, and 0.5% for current cocaine users, respectively (SAMHSA, 2010). Cocaine use is distinct among illicit substances on the basis that the rates of prevalence remain consistent with age whereas active use of all other psychotropic drugs fall all over the 20s (Johnston et al., 2009). However, it should be noted that the use of Cocaine started to drop in all age categories or age brackets in the year 2008 and for all age demographics, encompassing males and females, the yearly population of cocaine beginners dropped from 1 million in the year 2002 to 618,000 in the year 2009. The population of beginners or first-timers of crack cocaine dropped in the course of this period additionally from 338,000 to 95,000. In the year 2008, the prevalence rate of lifetime use of cocaine among people of about 50 years old peaked at 40% (SAMHSA, 2010).
Impact on male fertility
With regards to cocaine use, there is consistent evidence the reveals the teratogenic impacts of cocaine use on the development of the foetus with elevated cocaine use by pregnant women, although studies on the effect of cocaine use on the fertility rates of men are insufficient or almost inexistent as a result of the inability to objectively study impacts. There is an additional complication caused by a possible parallel use of other illicit psychotropic substances. Nevertheless, Bracken et al., (1990) revealed that males with a sperm count lower than 20 million/ml had a double tendency of having used cocaine in the last two years than males who had not had any cocaine use. Furthermore, males who have has a cocaine use history of more than 5 years had a double likelihood of having low sperm motility. This translates into low fertility capacities in such men.
George et al., (1996) elucidated the negative impacts of cocaine use on fertility via animal studies on rats. In their research, rats which were heavily exposed to cocaine at levels akin to chronic cocaine users (15 mg per kilogram of body weight) had pregnancy rates of about 34% and 51% for 100 and 150 days of exposure to cocaine respectively in comparison to 87% and 100% of rats without cocaine exposure in the same duration.
Methamphetamines and Ecstasy
Male use of methamphetamines is quite minimal according to reports by the NSDUH that the peaking annual prevalence rate of 1% is among men within the age category of 20-25. There are rates of about 25- 35, 365-50, and 51 years and above, the use of methamphetamines is 0.6%, 0.8%, and 0.1% for use in the last year and 0.5%, 0.6%, and 0.1% for current methamphetamine users in the aforementioned age categories respectively according to Johnston et al., (2009). Ecstasy (MDMA) is also most prevalent in the male age demographic of 20-25 at 5.1% and declines significantly for older age brackets. There is a 0.6% and 0.1%, prevalence rate of ecstasy use among male age categories of 25-35 and 36-50 for users in the last year and current use respectively.
Impact on male fertility
It is interesting to note that the effect of the use of methamphetamines on fertility in men has not been vividly examined. A study by Vitale et al., (1986), revealed that exposure of rats to amphetamines resulted into reduced plasma testosterone levels in a manner than is dose dependent. These results were also replicated and reinforced by the study by Tsai et al., (1996). A reason for this negative impact can be seen in the fact that fertility in males entails active spermatogenesis that is based upon the secretion of elevated levels of endogenous intratesticular testosterone by Leydig cells. Nevertheless, supraphysiological body levels of exogenous Anabolic-androgenic steroids actually luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone levels in the testes, thus translating into low sperm production and a significantly low fertility rate.
Conclusion
Based on all the aforementioned elucidations concerning the impact of Illicit drug and psychotropic substance use on male fertility rates in contemporary society, it has been elucidated in the course of this paper that the drug use among young people is usually in the course optimum reproductive phases or in the course of critical phases of testicular development. Drug abuse has been found to affect the hormonal axis in addition to causing damages and disruptions in semen analysis and useful sperm factors. There are numerous significant constraints to the current comprehension of the impacts of illicit drugs and psychotropic substances on the fertility of men. Research in this field are not so common albeit insufficient due to their retrospective orientation and taking into consideration the fact that prospective studies face the challenge of enrolling as a result of the illicit orientation of these drugs and as a result of the hazardous facet of their side effects, which make them highly unethical for studies involving trials in human subjects. It is also problematic to proceed with an assessment and control for numerous illicit substance interactions as a large amount of people using illicit substances are usually not just using a single type of psychotropic substance in addition to interactions with other drugs and foods that have the tendency of affecting metabolism of a psychotropic substance. Furthermore, interactions have the tendency of occurring due to the synthesis of metabolites that are pharmacologically active as is evident in the simultaneous ingestion of alcohol and cocaine, which leads to the production of cocaethylene, a compound that is similar to cocaine and increased the toxicity of such substances (McCance et al, 1995).
Whereas there have been some estimates concerning the use frequency of illicit drugs and other psychotropic substances, it cannot be ascertained precisely how frequent the use of illicit drugs results to diminished and compromised sperm production in the testes. In the evaluation of infertility, it is intrinsically imperative for clinical researchers to make inquiries concerning drug use, based on the fact that illicit drug use is usually not vividly apparent to the clinical investigator. If there is a positive attribute to the social history for the use of psychotropic substances, the clinical investigator has the opportunity of coordinating treatment regimes for improving reproductive processes and induce a change or modification in lifestyle. The pivotal factor in treatment regimes is drug use cessation followed closely by a cautious analysis of their endocrine statuses.
Irrespective of the aforementioned recommendations as to managing drug addiction by clinical investigators, it is not within the confines and scope of this current paper. This is based on the fact that the paper sought to shed an insightful light on the status of the detrimental impact of the use of illicit drugs and psychotropic substances among young people, coupled with the provision of an expose on the prevalence of chronic illicit drug use among young people. This was intended to reveal to the most passive reader, the perilous prevalence of the hazard of infertility among young people in contemporary society. The paper thus succeeded in revealing via critical and elucidatory review of past and recent secondary literature that the elevated prevalence rate of illicit drug use among young men of today is directly proportion to an elevated reduction in fertility or increase in infertility rates among young men. This thus calls for expedited action on curbing this hazardous menace from both the government’s health institutions and non-governmental organizations alike.
