A new study has revealed that being obese may cause men to have a lower than average sperm count.

With the rates of obesity continuing to grow in the western world, the effects of being overweight are being studied in increasingly more detail. Recent studies have drawn links between obesity and a number of serious physical conditions.

Research released earlier this year has drawn a link between obesity and womb cancer. Obesity during pregnancy has also been blamed for many health issues, for mothers and children.

Another study has published its findings this month concerning how harmful obesity can be for men. The research has further looked in to the relationship between body weight and male fertility.

The study was conducted by Dr Uwe Paasch and colleagues at the University of Leipzig in Germany and was published in, the medical journal, Fertility and Sterility. This is not the first study that has looked in to the issue of fertility for overweight men. Many past studies have suggested that men who are overweight have a worse sperm count than slimmer men.

The research team monitored 2,157 young men as part of the study. The men had an average age of 30, and had all attended a fertility clinic in order to receive semen analysis. None of the men had past of known fertility issues. They found that obese men between the ages of 20-30 had, on average, a lower sperm count than men of average weight, who were the same age.

These findings provide an extra issue for obese men to consider. The call for further investment for weight loss campaigns has increased in recent months. However, the government have recently chosen to cut the funding for the change4life campaign, which has been criticised heavily by health experts.