Gentlemen, there's a sperm killer on your lap
By Shola Ogundipe
Placing your laptop on your laps may appear to be the most natural thing to do, afterall, it is a "laptop" isn't it? However, if you must know, different groups of scientists have discovered from several studies that effects of high temperature and Wi-Fi signals from laptops may be damaging spermatozoa. How exactly these situations combine to affect fertility is what you catch your interest.
Fertility studies show that an increase of 33 degrees Fahrenheit could reduce sperm count by nearly 40 percent. One particular study found that running laptop on the thighs of men heated up to nearly 104 degrees Fahrenheit after 60 minutes, raising the temperatures in their scrotal area by 66 degrees Fahrenheit.
Wi-Fi stands for "wireless fidelity" or wireless internet connection – a term that refers to a group of technical standards which enable the transmission of data over wireless networks. Semen samples 29 healthy and fertile males were experimented on in two different environments – Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi. In the Wi-Fi sample, a few drops of semen were place under a laptop with the Wi-Fi switched on. The laptop was downloading data from the internet non-stop.
The non-Wi-Fi sample was identical to the Wi-Fi environment, but with no Wi-Fi switched on.
Four hours later, it was found that 25 percent of the sperm had lost motility in the Wi-Fi samples;
14 percent of the sperm had lost motility in the non-Wi-Fi samples; 9 percent of the sperm showed DNA damage in the Wi-Fi samples while 3 percent of the sperm showed DNA damage in the non-Wi-Fi samples.
Previous studies had already shown that placing a laptop on a man's lap could potentially affect his fertility, especially if this occurs frequently and for long periods. The laptop can cause scrotal hyperthermia (elevated testicle temperature), which can considerably affect the quality of his sperm, more in terms of motility than count.
Sperm motility refers to the percentage of sperm in a semen sample that are moving – normally, a high percentage of all sperm should be moving (thrashing their tails and swimming). Not only might the laptop-on-lap phenomenon undermine semen quality, but so can the Wi-Fi, if the laptop is near semen. There tends to be less damage when there is no Wi-Fi signal than when there is.
The point here is that males who place a laptop on their laps with the Wi-Fi on might have a greater risk of reduced sperm motility and more sperm DNA fragmentation, which could, in theory, undermine their chances of becoming fathers.
Looking at the big picture, any type of applied heat to the scrotum is bad and a man has really got to be quite conscious when it comes to items such as hot tubs, heating pads, and heated car seats.
Data suggest that the use of a laptop computer wirelessly connected to the internet and positioned near the male reproductive organs may decrease human sperm quality. At present it is not known whether this effect is induced by all laptop computers connected by Wi-Fi to the internet or what use conditions heighten this effect.
According to the Journal of Fertility and Sterility…. the first study to evaluate the direct impact of laptop use on human spermatozoa, proves that exposure of human spermatozoa to a wireless internet_connected laptop decreased motility and induced DNA fragmentation by a non-thermal effect. Basically anything that will put direct heat to the scrotum should be avoided like the plague.
Keeping a laptop connected wirelessly to the internet on the lap near the testes may result in decreased male fertility. It is better to err on the side of truth and assume this is a fact. It may be called a "laptop" but, on the long run, you're much better off using it on the table.
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