Health
Sperm dysfunction.
It’s an iPhone Pro-phylactic.
The more men use cell phones, the lower their sperm concentration, a new study suggests.
But hold on to the phone, folks, because hope is limited — current mobile technologies have been shown to generate less harmful frequencies than early cellular devices.
Published in the magazine Fertility and SterilityA new report found that men who regularly use their cell phones — whether it’s to make calls, check email, or any other activity that requires a mobile connection — have 20% lower sperm concentrations than those who don’t.
Research has repeatedly demonstrated that sperm quality has declined over the past 50 years, which experts say is due to a combination of environmental and lifestyle changes – although the role of mobile phones has yet to be determined.
“The use of mobile phones has increased significantly in recent decades, and there is growing concern about the potential harmful effects of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) emitted by these devices on human health and, in particular, on reproductive functions,” the researchers wrote. .
To test the validity of this concern, researchers at the University of Geneva, in collaboration with the Swiss Institute of Tropical and Public Health, collected data and semen samples from 2,886 men aged 18 to 22.
The volunteers submitted a questionnaire about their mobile phone usage and where they put it when not at hand.
Those who picked up their device more than 20 times a day were found to have 21% lower sperm concentration compared to those who did not use their phone more than once a week.
However, the study authors noted that the relationship between cell phone use and sperm characteristics peaked between 2005 and 2007 and gradually declined over subsequent study periods until the end of the report in 2018.
“This trend is similar to the transition from 2G to 3G and then from 3G to 4G, which led to a reduction in the transmission power of phones,” Martin Rossley said, Associate Professor at Swiss TPH. Their paper explains that the new, more efficient generation of mobile networks have RF-EMF output power hundreds of times lower than 2G – and the researchers believe that new phone technologies, including the advent of 5G, are continuing that path.
Meanwhile, the scientists found no link between where men store their cell phones — 85.7% of them in their pockets — with lower sperm parameters. However, the group of men who reported keeping their phones away from their bodies was too small to draw any strong conclusions.
As Rita Rahban, the study’s first author, said, “As we develop more sophisticated mobile networks, researchers are calling for renewed research efforts on male fertility and cell phone use.”
“Do the microwaves emitted by mobile phones have a direct or indirect effect? Do they cause a significant increase in temperature in the testicles? Do they affect the hormonal regulation of sperm production? All this needs to be discovered,” Rahban said.
