The infection often goes undiagnosed because there are few obvious symptoms, but is known to cause infertility in women if untreated. Spanish researchers found it can damage sperm quality.
The study, of 143 men, was presented at an American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference.
A team from Canalejo University Hospital in La Coruna examined sperm from men infected with chlamydia and another urinary tract infection who had failed to father a child. Using a new microscopic analysis technique, they found the level of damage – or DNA fragmentation – in their sperm was more than three times higher than in healthy men. The concentration of their sperm, its ability to swim quickly and defects in the shape of it were also poor.
The researchers treated 95 of the infertile men with antibiotics and found their DNA sperm damage improved an average of 36% after four months.
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