It’s an iPhone Pro-phylactic.
The more men use their cell phones, the lower their concetration of sperm, in keeping with an alarming latest study.
But hold the phone, fellas, because hope is on the road — as current mobile technologies have been shown to supply less potentially harmful frequencies than early cellular devices.
Published within the journal Fertility and Sterility, the brand new report revealed that men who often use their cellphone — to make calls, check email or any activity that requires a mobile connection — have over a 20% lower concentration of sperm than those that don’t.
Research has repeatedly shown that semen quality has decreased over the past 50 years, which experts have attributed to a mixture of environmental and lifestyle changes — yet the role of mobile phones has yet to be determined.
“Using mobile phones has increased substantially in recent a long time, and there’s a growing concern in regards to the possible detrimental effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) emitted by these devices on human health and particularly on reproductive functions,” the researchers wrote.
To check the validity of this concern, researchers from the University of Geneva collaborated with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute to gather data and semen samples from 2,886 men aged 18 to 22.
The volunteers submitted a questionnaire about their cell phone use and where they place it when not in hand.
Those that picked up their device greater than 20 times a day were found to have a 21% lower concentration of sperm in comparison with those that didn’t use their phone greater than once per week.
Nonetheless, study authors have noted that the connection between cellphone use and sperm characteristics was more pronounced throughout the first survey, between 2005 and 2007, and has steadily decreased in later research periods, until their reporting led to 2018.
“This trend corresponds to the transition from 2G to 3G, after which from 3G to 4G, that has led to a discount within the transmitting power of phones,’’ said Martin Röösli, associate professor at Swiss TPH. Their paper explains that newer, more efficient generations of mobile networks have a RF-EMF output power that’s tons of of times lower than 2G was — and researchers are hopeful that latest phone technologies, including the arrival of 5G, has continued that trajectory.
Meanwhile, scientists found no correlations between where men stored their cell phones — of their pocket for 85.7% of them — doesn’t appear to cause lower semen parameters. Nonetheless, the cohort of men who reported keeping their phones elsewhere, away from the body, was too small to attract any strong conclusions.
Researchers called for renewed research initiatives into male fertility and cellphone use as we develop more sophisticated mobile networks — because the study’s first writer, Rita Rahban, posited.
“Do the microwaves emitted by mobile phones have a direct or indirect effect? Do they cause a major increase in temperature within the testes? Do they affect the hormonal regulation of sperm production? This all stays to be discovered,’’ Rahban said.
