It’s an iPhone Pro-phylactic.
The more men use their cell phones, the lower their concetration of sperm, according to an alarming new study.
But hold the phone, fellas, because hope is on the line — as current mobile technologies have been shown to produce less potentially harmful frequencies than early cellular devices.
Published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, the new report revealed that men who regularly use their cell phone — to make calls, check email or any activity that requires a mobile connection — have over a 20% lower concentration of sperm than those who do not.
Research has repeatedly shown that semen quality has decreased over the last 50 years, which experts have attributed to a combination of environmental and lifestyle changes — yet the role of mobile phones has yet to be determined.
“The use of mobile phones has increased substantially in recent decades, and there is a growing concern about the possible detrimental effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) emitted by these devices on human health and particularly on reproductive functions,” the researchers wrote.
To test the validity of this concern, researchers from the University of Geneva collaborated with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute to collect data and semen samples from 2,886 men aged 18 to 22.
The volunteers submitted a questionnaire about their mobile phone use and where they place it when not in hand.
Those who picked up their device more than 20 times a day were found to have a 21% lower concentration of sperm compared to those who did not use their phone more than once a week.
However, study authors have noted that the relationship between cell phone use and sperm characteristics was more pronounced during the first survey, between 2005 and 2007, and has gradually decreased in later research periods, until their reporting ended in 2018.
“This trend corresponds to the transition from 2G to 3G, and then from 3G to 4G, that has led to a reduction in the transmitting power of phones,’’ said Martin Röösli, associate professor at Swiss TPH. Their paper explains that newer, more efficient generations of mobile networks have a RF-EMF output power that is hundreds of times lower than 2G was — and researchers are hopeful that new phone technologies, including the advent of 5G, has continued that trajectory.
Meanwhile, scientists found no correlations between where men stored their cell phones — in their pocket for 85.7% of them — does not appear to cause lower semen parameters. However, the cohort of men who reported keeping their phones elsewhere, away from the body, was too small to draw any strong conclusions.
Researchers called for renewed research initiatives into male fertility and cell phone use as we develop more sophisticated mobile networks — as the study’s first author, Rita Rahban, posited.
“Do the microwaves emitted by mobile phones have a direct or indirect effect? Do they cause a significant increase in temperature in the testes? Do they affect the hormonal regulation of sperm production? This all remains to be discovered,’’ Rahban said.
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