Heavy use of mobile phones
may damage men's fertility, a study has suggested.
Researchers found those men
who used a phone for four hours or more a
day had fewer sperm and those they had moved
less well and were of poorer quality.
The Ohio study involving
364 men was presented to the American Society
for Reproductive Medicine in New Orleans.
But a UK expert said it was
unlikely the phones were to blame, as they
were in use and not near the testes, and it
may be being sedentary was the cause.
The
team from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation
in Ohio tested the sperm of 364 men who were
being treated at fertility clinics in Mumbai,
India, with their partners.
It was found that the heaviest
users, those who used their phones for more
than four hours a day had the lowest average
sperm counts, at 50 million per millilitre
(ml) and the least healthy sperm.
Men who used their phones
for between two and four hours a day averaged
sperm counts of 69 million per ml and had
moderately healthy sperm.
Those who said they did not
use mobile phones at all had the highest average
sperm counts, of 86 million per ml, and their
sperm was of the highest quality seen.
'Used without thinking
twice'
Dr Ashok Agarwal, who led
the research, told the New Orleans conference
the study did not prove mobiles damaged fertility,
but said it showed more research was warranted.
"There was a significant
decrease in the most important measures of
sperm health and that should definitely be
reflected in a decrease in fertility, which
is seen worldwide.
"People use mobile phones
without thinking twice what the consequences
might be.
"It is just like using a
toothbrush, but mobiles could be having a
devastating effect on fertility.
"It still has to be proved,
but it could be having a huge impact because
mobiles are so much part of lives."
He suggested radiation from
mobile phones might harm sperm by damaging
DNA, affecting the cells in the testes which
produce testosterone or the tubes where sperm
is produced.
But a British expert cast
doubt on the suggested link between mobile
phone use and infertility in the men studied.
Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer
in andrology at the University of Sheffield,
said: "This is a good study, but I don't think
it tackles the issue.
"If you're using your phone
for four hours a day, presumably it is out
of your pocket for longer.
"That raises a big question:
how is it that testicular damage is supposed
to occur?"
Dr Pacey, who is honorary
secretary of the British Fertility Society,
added: "If you are holding it up to your head
to speak a lot, it makes no sense that it
is having a direct effect on your testes."
He added that people who
use phones for longer might be more sedentary,
more stressed or eat more junk food, which
might be more likely explanations for the
link found in the study.
