Beware: Mobiles may make men impotent

Chatting on a mobile phone for long durations may leave men impotent, reveals a new U.S. study.

The study presented in a poster session at the 62nd annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in New Orleans divulges that men who use mobile phones extensively (more than four hours a day) report a significantly low sperm count than those who do not.

The electromagnetic fields generated by mobile phone handsets are believed to be doing the damage.

Researchers who conducted the study indicated that both quantity and quality of sperms declined as the daily mobile phone usage increased.
Medical records of 364 men evaluated for infertility between September 2004 and October 2005 directly linked cell phone usage to infertility in men.

While on one hand, heavy cellphone users reported 40 percent drop in sperm production, on the other hand significant down trend was also seen in sperm quality. All parameters such as sperm swimming, alive sperm, and sperm shape showed negative trends.

Categorized as extensive users, men who used mobile phones for more than four hours a day, reported the maximun damage as their sperm count was recored the lowest at 66 million per milliliter.

Meanwhile, the average sperm count among men who did not use cell phones at all was recorded at 86 million per milliliter.

Men with cell phone usage of less than two hours a day had a sperm count of 76 million per milliliter while, with those between two to four hours the figures stood at 71 million per milliliter.

Though the sperm count deteriorated with higher cell phone usage, they were still well above the normal lower limit of 20 million sperm per milliliter level.

Various studies conducted previously have also shown a close link beween radiation exposure and sperm damage in laboratories, but none of them have been demonstrated in the open environment.

However, this is also a very preliminary study and it must not be taken for granted that cell phone use is a definite cause of decreased male fertility.