Laptops affect your sperm
2004-12-10 09:38
London - Men beware: A new study has found that male laptop users could be damaging their reproductive health.
Researchers found that laptops, combined with the thighs pressed-together posture needed to balance them, give off enough heat to raise the temperature inside testicles by nearly three degrees celsius.
The study - Increase in Scrotal Temperature in Laptop Computer Users - was published in the UK journal Human Reproduction.
Dr Yefim Sheynkin and four other researchers of the State University of New York were responsible for the study.
"Laptop computers have become part and parcel of contemporary lifestyle and became popular among the younger section of populations of reproductive age," the report said.
"It is also known that laptop computers can become very hot when switched on."
Twenty-nine volunteers between the ages of 21 and 35 took part in the study.
The scrotal temperature of the men was tested with the computer on their laps and then without it. The tests were conducted on different days and each test lasted for an hour.
The scrotal temperature increased significantly when the men had the laptops on their laps, the report said.
"The body needs to maintain a proper testicular temperature for normal sperm production and development," Sheynkin said.
He warned that years of frequent laptop use "may cause irreversible or partially reversible changes in male reproductive function".