Increasing concerns about mobile phone effects on male fertility

Several studies from around the world have indicated that microwave radiations are having an effect on the fertility of men and women.  One study concludes that microwave radiations have a significant effect on the reproductive pattern in male rats, which is a causative factor of male infertility.

Another study had found that exposure to microwave radiation decreases motility and vitality of human spermatozoa cells, whilst stimulating DNA fragmentation. These findings have clear implications for the safety of extensive mobile phone use by males of reproductive age, affecting fertility and health and wellbeing of their offspring.

The third study investigates specific absorption rates (SAR) in the human body when the mobile phone is located in the front right trouser pocket of a male.

Maximum levels of exposure at the head are allowed to be 2 W/kg in the UK. Higher levels are allowed for other areas of the body, but eyes, breasts and testicles absorb RF radiation more highly than any other external part of the body. At only half the permitted level, sperm motility and vitality were decreased by an average of 20%.

Measuring the effects on women is harder because their reproductive organs are deeper within the body and less susceptible. However pregnant women’s exposure to microwave radiation should be monitored because there has been evidence linking exposure to miscarriage.

Mobile phone use impacts sperm quality – 05/11

Research teams from the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Queen’s University in Canada, and from the Medical University of Graz in Austria have found that although mobile phone use increases levels of circulating testosterone in men, it also appears to decrease levels of an important reproductive hormone (luteinizing hormone, LH) that is secreted by the pituitary gland in the brain.

2110 men from an infertility clinic were examined between 1993 – 2007. The men were divided into those who used a mobile phone (991) and those who didn’t (1119), and their semen was collected for analysis on four counts. Testosterone, follicle simulating hormone (FSH), LH, and prolactin were collected from all the men. Researchers found that mobile phone use negatively affects sperm quality in men by raising testosterone and lowering luteinizing hormone levels, but that the levels of FSH and prolactin remained similar between the groups. Further, carefully designed research into the impacts of mobile phone use on male fertility is proposed.

Source: Andrologia

05/11

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