'Evolutionary war' may be real cause of fertility problems
TAU researchers suggest bodies of men and women have become reproductive antagonists, not partners.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHsperm 88(photo credit: )
It's not hot laptop computers on men's laps, a polluted environment, gynecological infections or a junk-food diet: The main reason for the rise in human infertility is an evolutionary battle between the sexes, according to a biologist at Tel Aviv University.
One in 10 couples are unable to conceive, and many external factors have been blamed. But evolutionary biologist Dr. Oren Hasson of TAU's zoology department suggests in the latest issue of the journal Biological Reviews that male and female reproductive organs are "currently involved in an evolutionary arms race, and the fight isn't over yet."
By now, he explains, evolution should have improved our reproductive success rate. But something else is going on. Combining empirical evidence with a mathematical model developed in cooperation with Prof. Lewis Stone of the department's biomathematics unit, the researchers suggest that the bodies of men and women have become reproductive antagonists, not reproductive partners.
Over thousands of years of evolution, women's bodies have forced sperm to become more competitive, rewarding the strongest, fastest swimmers with penetration of the ovum. In response, men are overproducing these aggressive sperm, producing many dozens of millions of them to increase their chances for successful fertilization.
But these evolutionary strategies demonstrate the Law of Unintended Consequences, says Hasson. "It's a delicate balance, and over time women's and men's bodies fine-tune to each other. Sometimes, during the fine-tuning process, high rates of infertility can be seen.
"That's probably the reason for the very high rates of unexplained infertility in the last decades."
The unintended consequences have much to do with timing. The first sperm to enter and bind with the egg triggers biochemical responses to block other sperm from entering. This blockade is necessary because a second penetrating sperm would kill the egg. However, in just the few minutes it takes for the blockade to complete, today's overcompetitive sperm may be penetrating, terminating the fertilization just after it's begun. Women's bodies, too, have been developing defenses to this condition, known as "polyspermy."
"To avoid the fatal consequences of polyspermy, female reproductive tracts have evolved to become formidable barriers to sperm," says Dr. Hasson. "They eject, dilute, divert and kill spermatozoa so that only about a single sperm cell gets into the vicinity of a viable egg at the right time."
Any small improvement in male sperm efficiency is matched by a response in the female reproductive system, Hasson contends. "This fuels the 'arms race' between the sexes and leads to the evolutionary cycle going on right now in the entire animal world."
Sperm have also become more sensitive to environmental stressors like anxious lifestyles or polluted environments.
"Armed only with short-sighted natural selection," Hasson argues, "nature could not have foreseen those stressors. This is the pattern of any arms race: A greater investment in weapons and defenses entails greater risks and a more fragile equilibrium."
In vitro fertilization specialists can optimize the odds by more carefully calculating the number of sperm placed near the ova, the researchers add. And nature itself may have its say as well.
Sexually adventurous women, like females of many birds and mammals that raise their offspring monogamously but take on other sexual partners, help create a more fertile future. But not always, according to the authors' mathematical model, as certain types of infertile sperm race to the egg as competitively as any healthy sperm and may block the sperm of a fertile suitor.
But whatever the source of infertility, Hasson - who also works as a marriage counselor - can't recommend cheating, not even as an evolutionary psychologist. Infertile marriages can be stressful, but unlike birds, humans have the capacity for rational thinking.
He advises infertile couples to openly communicate about all their options and seek counseling if necessary.
