Search for better body care hitting men below the belt
People work-out at a Nairobi gym. Medics recommend medical check-up at least once a year. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Metrosexuals pay attention to their appearance and spend a lot on getting the right shape.
Do not be in a hurry to embrace ‘metrosexuality,’ men have been warned. Those taking that route risk losing a big portion of what defines their manhood.
In pursuit of designer colognes, and other beauty products, men come into contact with chemicals traditionally used in toiletries that are harmful to their reproductive health, according to the first study which has analysed their impact.
The chemicals cited in this study, Endocrine disruptors compounds (EDCs), are found in products in the bathrooms: toothpaste, shampoos, perfumes, air fresheners, shaving creams and sun screens.
In an article in The Independent in November 15, 1994, Mark Simpson combined two words — metropolitan and heterosexual — to make the word metrosexual. Metrosexuals pay attention to their appearance and spend a lot on getting the right shape.
That defines men like David Beckham who, as Mark Simpson observed, were only found in fashion magazines in the eighties, but are now everywhere.
EDCs cause infertility, poor semen quality and deformation of the penis. Ouch! This is according to a new report by Nordic Council of Ministers — representatives of the government of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden — published in the medical journal Norden, in November 2014.
A renowned brand of toothpaste in Kenya contains triclosan, an EDC also found in bacterial soaps and acne creams, which interferes with testosterone and decreases sperm count.
Other possible impacts of over-exposure to EDCs listed are undescended testicles and testicular cancer, even though the latter is rare in black men.
Mungai Ngugi, a urologist at Kenyatta National Hospital, says there is an increase in men developing reproductive health problems in Kenya and he attributes it to “change in the environment”.
Prof Mungai lists chemicals such as those found in home products like aerosols and other non-biodegradable products as part of contributors to the increased cases of problems in male reproductive health.
His observations are congruent to another new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in October 2014 which found that another EDC — benzophenone (BP) ultraviolet (UV) radiation filter — used in antiperspirants and sun screens reduced male fertility by 30 per cent.
While acknowledging that there were many Kenyan men seeking his service, another urologist Dr Gitobu Mburugu said the cases he handled are caused by an array of factors, including chemical factors.
“Of the number of men that visit the hospital, there are a few whose conditions cannot be explained and perhaps these may be tied to the so-called chemical issues”, Dr Mburugu said.
Dr Mburugu could not attribute the increasing number of men seeking treatment for reproductive health problems as a sign of a rise of such health problems with certainty as there are no studies specific to Kenya. He did not rule out the possibility of an increase of cases reported though.
There have been studies linked to known cosmetic products used by men all over the world to their reproductive health problems. In 2012, the World Health Organisation published a report on EDCs in collaboration with the Unep.
In a press release in Nairobi in February 2013 during the launch of the report, WHO associated exposure to EDCs with, among other health problems, the development of non-descended testes in young men.
In 2012, the Canadian lobby Environmental Defence produced a report, Manscaping: The Dirt on Toxic Ingredients in Men’s Body care Products.
In this study, an ED (1, 4-dioxane) was found in various shampoos such as Tresemmé including Head & Shoulders and L’Oreal while phthalates—pronounced as THALates— a group of chemicals used in the manufacture of plastic to increase flexibility, was found in Calvin Klein Obsession and Old Spice Deodorant.
That year, another study detected 55 suspected EDCs in commercial products, the highest concentration perfumes, air fresheners, shaving creams and sunscreens. Unfortunately, many of the suspected compounds were not listed on the product labels, therefore, hurting decision making during purchase.
So, controversial, has the debate been that the European Union is conducting a survey on how to identify the most harmful EDCs ending this month.
Apart from changes in lifestyle such as eating organic food, the medic recommend medical check-up at least once a year which may cost Sh2,000 in public hospitals and Sh4,000 in private ones.
Some studies have been challenged by manufacturers because there has not been a single human toxicology report that has proven causation ‘satisfactorily’ because analysing links to birth defects, for instance, would demand a study of an expectant mother’s tissue samples before giving birth.
