Do Wi-Fi-Connected Laptops Affect Fertility?

Note: This article is taken from the American physician and writer Michael Greger, who tells us about the dangers of laptops and Wi-Fi on male reproductive health.

It was the first study to evaluate the direct effect of using laptop computers on human sperm. Information was taken on the levels of DNA breakage in human sperm in samples placed near a laptop computer with an active Wi-Fi connection compared to samples placed away from it. No Wi-Fi-connected device should be placed near the male genitals because it may affect the quality of human sperm.

Exposure to Wi-Fi reduces intrinsic motility of human sperm

Exposure to Wi-Fi increases the breakdown of intracellular DNA and decreases the intrinsic motility of human sperm, but this effect is very limited. A 10% reduction in the number of progressively motile sperm wouldn't make much of a difference because hundreds of millions of sperm are produced and released in fertile men.

What hasn't been done yet is a study of whether these men could eventually have healthy babies and whether men exposed to random Wi-Fi had more difficulty conceiving children. This study actually looks harder than some people might think. We can't even get men to avoid phones and laptops for just one day.

Although a man produces millions of new sperm every day, the process of completing their growth and maturation takes months. The sperm that carries out the process of fertilization and childbearing today began its first immature journey several months ago, and then you can imagine the reason that prevented this study from being conducted so far. Men will have to be instructed to avoid radio communications mainly and completely, or to invent a kind of Faraday cage-style underwear; "It is a metal structure made of a conductive material that is used to isolate what is inside it from electromagnetic and external electrical influences, and it can be used to protect people and equipment from high electric currents such as lightning and from the phenomenon of electrical discharge, and its size can be the size of a small box to the size of large buildings."

The effect of computer-generated heat

Another reason why a laptop computer should not be placed on your lap when it is turned on and used is that the heat generated by the computer, whether it is connected to Wi-Fi or not, can lead to heating of the scrotum. It is the skin sac in which the testicles are located outside the body, which undermines the main objective of the existence of the scrotum and disturbs it in the first place, which is manifested by keeping the male gonads outside the body in a way that allows the testicles and the epididymis—a narrow tube that wraps around the top of the testicle and connects the testicle to the vas deferens in the male.

Its length is 6-7 meters, and its role is to store the sperm in it until they are ejaculated—to be exposed to a temperature a few degrees lower than the basic body temperature, which ensures the appropriate temperature for sperm production and storage.

Here we deduce a question that arises about the real need for the use of means of protection against high scrotal temperatures among laptop users. But we won't know the answer until the necessary tests are carried out. There has already been a rise in scrotal temperature among laptop users, and even cases of third-degree burns from laptop computers that required surgical treatment have been reported.

Five ideas explaining the impact of laptops on fertility

1. Researchers suggest that Wi-Fi devices should be placed away from male genitals because exposure to Wi-Fi may reduce the quality of sperm by decreasing their intrinsic motility and increasing the rate of intracellular DNA breakage.
2. The heat generated by the laptop, whether it is connected to Wi-Fi or not, is another reason for not placing it on the lap when operating and using it because of the possibility of a high scrotal temperature when placed in this way. This disrupts the scrotum's primary function of preserving the male gonad so that the testicles and epididymis are exposed to temperatures a few degrees lower than the core body temperature.
3. Similarly, heated car seats can raise the temperature of the testicles, and sauna exposure has been shown to halve the rate of sperm production, although full recovery was observed after six months.
4. The field of scrotal cooling has recently emerged with devices designed to cool the testicles, such as rubber collars that are filled with ice cubes and boxes of freezing gel.
5. A high temperature in the scrotum has been found among laptop users. In one case report, a middle-aged man without pre-existing diseases developed ulcers on the penis and scrotum the morning after he wrote a report on his laptop, which he was placing on his lap. These developed sores into infected wounds that ooze pus.

In conclusion

Cases of third-degree burns have actually been reported when a laptop is placed on the lap while it is turned on and in use, requiring surgeries to treat them and resorting to the use of skin grafts.