Do Cellphones Affect Fertility?

I wanted to ask a question I asked my science teacher today. Is it true that for boys who carry their phones in the pocket, it can cause problems with their sperm?

It sounds like an urban myth, but there is some limited data to suggest that cellphones can affect male fertility. In fact, last month a study in the medical journal Fertility & Sterility examined the cellphone use of 361 men at a fertility clinic. The results showed that the more men used cellphones, the lower the count, quality and motility of their sperm.

In October, the same medical journal reported on an animal study from Milwaukee researchers who found that rats exposed to six hours of daily cellular phone emissions for 18 weeks had a significantly higher incidence of sperm cell death than rats not exposed to such emissions. The study authors said the results suggest that carrying cellphones near reproductive organs could negatively affect male fertility.

However, as a review last fall in Reproductive Biomedicine Online points out, there simply isn’t enough quality research to know whether the effects seen in animal studies or observational data are meaningful. Even if cellphones do affect sperm quality and motility, is it enough to have a meaningful impact on a man’s fertility?

There are some global concerns about declining male fertility in industrialized countries, but issues like pollutants, exposure to chemicals and smoking are likely far more worrisome culprits than cellphones. If I had a teenage son, I think I would try to limit his cellphone use for broader reasons than worries about his future fertility. I would hope my teenager would be active enough in sports and school that his time spent on the phone would be minimal.

Source: nytimes