Bacteria in semen also condition pregnancy success: ‘Fertility clinics still focus mainly on the woman’

Infertility affects about 48 million couples worldwide and, in a substantial share of cases, the specific cause is never identified. In this context, the study of the relationship between reproductive health and the microorganisms that inhabit our bodies (the microbiome) and reproduction has emerged only recently, and with a strong bias. Attention has focused especially on the female body, but a study just published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women’s Health has taken a different approach. The work shifts the focus to the semen microbiome as well, examining its role in miscarriage…