How Mobile Phones Can Reduce Fertility in Men

It has long been regarded as a truth that technology is a double-edged sword. While some of its offerings have made life easier and longer, others have made it easier to kill and maim. The same dilemma appears to surround a practically indispensable feature of contemporary lives - mobile phones. There have been some reports about health hazards surrounding mobile phones, including male infertility. But what is the truth and if indeed there is any link, how can mobile phones reduce fertility in men?

Evidence of link between mobile phone use and male infertility

According to a study conducted by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine whose results were released at the 2006 annual meeting in New Orleans, there was a definite causal link between long hours of mobile phone use and male infertility in the form of poor sperm quality. The study reported in the Daily Mail¹ found that men who made calls on a mobile phone for more than four hours a day had the worst sperm counts and the poorest quality sperm.

In the study, US researchers in Cleveland and New Orleans, as well as doctors in Mumbai, India, looked at more than 360 men undergoing checks at a fertility clinic who were classified into three groups according to their sperm count. Altogether 361 men in the study were divided into four groups, with 40 never using a mobile, 107 men using them for less than two hours a day, 100 men using them for two-four hours daily and 114 making calls for four or more hours a day.

At the end of the research period it was found that Men who used a mobile for more than four hours a day had a 25 per cent lower sperm count than men who never used a mobile. The men with highest usage also had greater problems with sperm quality, with the swimming ability of sperm - a crucial factor in conception - down by a third. They had a 50 per cent drop in the number of properly formed sperm, with just one-fifth looking normal under a microscope.

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What causes male infertility

There are different types of causes that are responsible for male infertility – the most common of these are physiological like erectile dysfunction or impotence, hormonal imbalance, psychological issues and lifestyle factors. While physiological causes hamper the physical process of fertilization, the other causes may negatively impact sperm quality which is based on sperm concentration, sperm motility, sperm viability and sperm morphology or shape. Motility measures the swimming ability of sperm, viability measures whether non-swimming sperm are still alive while morphology is the appearance compared to the norm. The greater the concentration of sperm in a limited quantity of semen, the better the ability of the sperm to swim and the lesser the morphological defects, the higher will the man’s fertility. According to the WHO,  a normal sperm count is above 20 million per milliliter of seminal fluid.

Researchers believe that use of mobile phones may be damaging all these aspects of sperm quality in mainly two ways, by electromagnetic radiation and heat. In case of the former, somehow electromagnetic waves may be causing direct damage to human cells and that perhaps causes a decrease in sperm production. An important thing to bear in mind here is the SAR the cell phone’s spontaneous absorption rate (SAR). SAR measures the amount of radio frequency radiation that the body absorbs. A cell phone with a SAR of less than 1.6 watts per kilogram is recommended for use. This value has also been approved by the Federal Communication Commission. High levels of SAR and thus overexposure to radiation emitted by cell phones have already been conclusively linked to  higher risk of developing brain cancer; however the study did not find evidence of any such link with regards to testicular cancer in men.

Yet another way that mobile phones could hamper male infertility is through heat. If a man was wearing it on a belt or carrying it around in a pocket, mobile phones would increase temperature in the groin, and heat has been found to have a damaging effect on sperm quality. The ideal temperature for sperm production is three to four degrees below normal body temperature. Any warmer will affect sperm count, slashing it by about 40 percent per one-degree rise. The need to maintain optimum temperature is probably why a man's testicles rest outside the body in the scrotum rather than in the abdomen, like the ovaries. Thus excessive use of mobile phones around the vicinity of the man’s groin, like when texting, could have a negative effect on his sperm quality and consequently lead to infertility. It is also for this reason that young men are advised to limit the time they use laptops on their laps since the heat from the battery might impair sperm production.

The Daily Mail website which quotes the above study also marks how sperm counts among men from developed countries have fallen in recent years. Sperm counts among British men are believed to have dropped by 29 per cent over the past decade, a trend which has also been blamed on increasing obesity, smoking, stress, pollution and exposure to other environmental toxins. Since more than 40 million people in Britain are thought to use mobile phones, the link between its use and rising incidence of male fertility may not be that far-fetched at all.

However Professor Ashok Agarwal, director of the Reproductive Research Centre at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, who led the above-quoted study, believes that it is still too early to advise men trying to start a family about whether they should limit their mobile phone use. At the same time though, people should be aware of possible dangers and use mobile phones – like any other tool of technology – with discretion and within limits of necessity.

Reference:

1. Mail Online - Men who use mobile phones face increased risk of infertility