A study that was published in 2008 in the journal Human Reproduction, suggests that a diet of even modest amounts of soy based food or even just food containing soy may halve sperm concentrations.
One of the researchers behind this study is Jorge Chavarro at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. In his study he and his colleagues sampled 100 couples who were seeking treatment for infertility.They had the men provide semen samples and then answer survey questions that pertained to the amount of soy products (including food such as “powerbars” and tofu) that they had consumed over the past three months. In Chavarro’s study the men were divided into four groups. These groups were based on the amount of soy that the men had consumed. After comparing all of the groups, Chavarro noticed a significant difference between the men who did not eat too much soy based food and the men who ate a fair amount of soy food.
His study found that while the “normal” sperm concentration for a man is between 80 and 120 million per millilitre, the average sperm concentration for those who had about a portion of soy based food every other day was about was 41 million less than the typical count.
More studies have been done, especially by companies that use soy for their products, that show that this research may be false. The most scientific answer that Chavarro has to explain how soy affects sperm count is that soy foods usually contain higher amounts of isoflavones. Isoflavones are compounds that mimic the effects of estrogen.
Some people choose to agree with Chavarro’s findings because the studies have shown a drastic difference between the men who ate soy and the men who did not. However, other people do not think it is true. For instance, some people do not believe this finding because of the fact that most men in Asia eat a lot of soy based products, and they do not seem to have any fertility problems.
It will be interesting to see the results of further studies.
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Soy has been consumed in Asia for years and they seem to be reproducing just fine. I’m worndering if the dairy industry had something to do with this. First they say it’s full of estrogen so it can give women breast cancer, now they’re saying it reduces sperm count.
I read somewhere that Soy is not good for women but most of soy consumers do not agree with that notion. I have a friend who is a vegetarian and consumes lots of soy, from soy milk to soy meat chunks etc. But according to her there is no danger soy poises to women.