A report on WebMD, says Male fertility may be affected by perching laptop computers on the lap, according to a new study.
Balancing laptop computers on the lap raises the scrotum’s temperature, say researchers including Yefim Sheynkin, MD, FACS, of the urology department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Laptop Damaging Sperm
About 15%-20% of couples that want to get pregnant aren’t able to conceive. Many of those cases trace back to issues relating to the male. Gradually declining sperm production has been noted in recent decades, say the researchers.
Elevated scrotal temperatures have been linked to male infertility. Many factors can raise scrotal temperature, including hot baths, saunas, and tight jockey shorts.
Laptop computers may also belong on that list, say Sheynkin’s team. They studied 29 healthy young men ages 21 to 35 for two, one-hour sessions in a climate-controlled room.
Participants were all similarly dressed in casual clothes. After having their body temperature taken and standing in the room for 15 minutes to adjust to the room’s temperature, they sat down and were given working or nonworking laptop computers.
The researchers used two brands of Pentium 4 laptop computers. The brands aren’t identified in the study, which appears in the European journal Human Reproduction … read more
Best Not to put your Laptop on the Lap, Study Shows
Another report emerged from BBC that Scientists are questioning if using wi-fi on a laptop to roam the internet could harm a man’s fertility, after lab work suggested ejaculated sperm were significantly damaged after only four hours of exposure.
The benchside tests showed sperm were less able to swim and had changes in the genetic code that they carry.
Experts stress this does not mean the same would occur in a real-life setting and say men should not worry unduly.
But they are recommending more studies.
The preliminary research, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, looked at semen samples from 29 healthy donors.
Each donor sample was separated out into two pots. One of these pots was then stored for four hours next to a laptop that was wirelessly connected to the internet. The other was stored under identical conditions, minus the laptop.
The scientists, from Argentina and the US, suspect that the effect seen is unrelated to the heat radiated by a laptop, although heat can damage sperm.
Ongoing investigation
The UK’s Health Protection Agency has been closely monitoring the safety of wi-fi.
It says people using wi-fi, or those in the proximity of wi-fi equipment, are exposed to the radio signals it emits – and some of the transmitted energy in the signals is absorbed in their bodies.
However, the signals are very low power.
The HPA says there is no consistent evidence to date that exposure to radio signals from wi-fi adversely affects the health of the general population.
UK fertility expert Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said: “The study is very well conducted, but we should be cautious about what it may infer about the fertility of men who regularly use laptops with wi-fi on their laps … read more
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