Effect of Heavy Metal Pollution on Male Fertility and Its Mechanism

Heavy metal (such as lead, cadmium, chromium, etc.) exposure has become an urgent public health problem in Hong Kong over the last few months. It has also been recognised that high heavy metal level may have adverse effects on adults, one of which is reproductive function leading to abnormal semen parameters and reduction of male fertility. However, the results are not by any means conclusive as several confounding variables could have affected the observations. Now in Hong Kong, there is a window of opportunity to study the relationship, if any, between heavy metal level in the blood and semen parameters in couples presenting with infertility. In this study we are going to investigate this issue and the mechanism behind it. To determine if there is a significant relationship between blood heavy metal level and semen parameters, and the possible mechanism.

Funding Source: UGC - Funding from The Chinese University of Hong Kong^