Study: correlation between sperm quality and cell phone use

Someone once explained why he didn’t want to keep his mobile phone close to his groin. Now, it seems, a recent study has lent support to the idea that healthy sperm and cell phone use may not mix. More on how your cellular phone relates to male gamete quality after the jump.

Guys, take note: if you want to have kids, you may want to avoid spending too much time on your mobile phone. The reason? A study conducted by Dr. Ashok Agarwal and his fellow researchers at the Cleveland Infertility Clinic suggests that spending hours on a cell phone each day is somehow related to the quality of your sperm.

Agarwal and his colleagues based their findings on sperm samples collected from 361 men at their clinic. They also questioned the men about their cell phone habits.  As such, findings indicated that longer times spent using the cell phone correlated with low sperm count and even abnormal sperm.

At this point, it is important to note that while there may be relationship between the duration of cell phone use and sperm quality, it has not yet been confirmed that the relationship is a causal one. As Dr. Agarwal said:  “Our results show a strong association of cell phone use with decreased semen quality. However, they do not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.”

As a follow-up, Agarwal and his fellow researchers have two additional studies underway in order to verify if electromagnetic radiation emitted by the phones indeed affects sperm quality. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t hurt to moderate your cell phone use, just to be safe.