Effect of noise pollution on male fertility (Review)

Background: Noise as a most common harmful physical agent in workplaces has some effects on the exposed persons such as hearing threshold reduction, increasing blood pressure, and interference with the speech. The adverse side-effect of noise is one of the scientific areas that have seldom been considered by researchers. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of occupational noise on the male fertility (human and experimental animals) to be finally able to provide solutions for the future orientation of research studies, and on the other hand, to increase awareness in industrial divisions about effects of noise stress on workers fertility. Materials and Methods: In this study, we conducted the bibliographic search in PubMed and Google Scholar databases and studies about effects of workplaces noise on the male fertility with keywords such as fertility, noise, and testicular damage were selected. Results: Male infertility is a major health problem in the world. According to different study, Noise can impact on testis weight, sperm parameters (count, viability, motility and morphology), sexual hormones, testicular tissue, oxidative stress and finally infertility. Conclusions: The results of this study shows that noise exposure plays an important role as an environmental risk factor for male fertility; therefore, it is necessary to formulate guidelines for occupational exposure limits of noise effects, exposure time, use or not usage of supplemental antioxidants and to consider fertility and not be confined merely to the effects of noise on hearing system.