NEW DELHI: Researchers recorded the temperature changes to the scrotum caused by laptop use among 29 healthy male volunteers aged between 21 and 35 and found that just sitting with thighs pressed together, caused scrotal temperatures to rise by 2.1 degrees C.
The AIIMS study also found that majority of men who were exposed to high temperature at their work places welders, dyers, blast furnace workers, cement and steel factories are also more prone to infertility. All this happens because even small changes in temperature have a negative effect on sperm production.
Testes are located outside of the body, suspended by the spermatic cord within the scrotum. This allows for more efficient and fertile sperm production.
The temperature of the testes is usually three degrees lower than the core body temperature (37 degrees C or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Even one degree elevation in testicular temperature leads to 14% depression of spermatogenesis.
“Not only has quantity of sperm production declined in males across the world, there has been a decrease in mortility (sperm movement) and morphology (shape and structure) of the sperms.
“There has been a 2% decrease in quality of male sperm annually. Also, 40% men in the reproductive age group are at present recording a quantitative and qualitative decline in sperm quality,” Dr Dada said. The study also found that nearly 20% of infertile men with low sperm count, or oligospermia, harboured genetic abnormalities.
The abnormality either involved sex chromosomes or autosomes or micro deletions in the ‘Y’ chromosome, said Dada. The ‘Y’ chromosome harbours the gene critical for germ cell development and differentiation, without which a person will have no sperms or will have very low sperm count.
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Source:The times of India