YOUR laptop may be enhancing your hi-tech prowess and
internet compliance, but do you know it could, at the same time, be
shrinking your chances of biologically fathering your children?
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.
