I am seeing more and more otherwise healthy men with reduced sperm parameters, usually motility and morphology for which there is no apparent etiology.
I am convinced that environmental and external factors are to blame, drugs, pesticides, hormones in livestock and laptop computers. Now, according to an article in BioNews there is an additional possible factor, cell phones.
Keeping mobile phones in pockets can affect two important measures of sperm health, the study suggests.
To help clarify whether radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones can cause male fertility problems, researchers at the University of Exeter reviewed ten separate studies.
Sperm quality was assessed by measuring motility (movement), viability (number of sperm that are alive) and concentration of sperm cells in semen (count), all of which are commonly used to assess fertility. The researchers found that while a control group had 50 to 80 percent normal movement, exposure to mobile phones led to an eight percent drop in average motility. Mobile phones also led to a nine percent drop in viability. The effects on concentration were however unclear.
‘This study strongly suggests that being exposed to radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation from carrying mobiles in pant pockets negatively affects sperm quality’, said lead researcher Dr Fiona Mathews.
The studies that were analysed looked at a total of 1,492 samples from men attending fertility clinics and research centers, and comprised of both experimental in vitro and observational in vivo studies.
However, the study has come under criticism, with many pointing out that the results from such meta-analyses can be problematic if the individual studies have inconsistencies. The authors of the meta-analysis have however also been cautious to point out that more work is now needed. Dr Mathews said that ‘further research is required to determine the full clinical implications for the general population’.
I believe the factor not studies here, morphology or sperm shape, is actually more sensitive to drugs such as steroids and environmental factors.