Scientists from two Swiss institutions investigation concluded in a new study that the frequent use of mobile phones can reduce, due to the electromagnetic waves they emit, the concentration of sperm in a man’s semen, and thus the chances of fertilizing an egg and having children.
However, the study carried out by the University of Geneva (Unige) in collaboration with the Swiss Institute of Public and Tropical Health (Swiss TPH) also determined that this use of cell phones does not affect the morphology of sperm or their mobility (their ability to move autonomously).
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The experts analyzed data from 2,886 young Swiss soldiers between 18 and 22 years old in six recruitment centers, in different years between 2005 and 2018, who were asked about their frequency of use of the phone mobileaccording to a statement from Unige.
With this, it was discovered that young people who used their cell phones little (just once a week) had an average concentration of 56.5 million sperm per milliliter of semen, 21 percent more than that of those who used their phone more than 20 times a day, which was 44.5 million sperm per milliliter.
According to World Health Organization, Below 40 million sperm per milliliter the chances of conceiving are reduced, and they become very low below 15 million.
The study detected, however, that these differences in sperm concentration between regular and infrequent mobile phone users are reducing over the years.
And these possibilities were greater in the era of 2G cell phones (according to data from young people in the country houses from 2005 to 2007) and have been decreasing with the arrival of 3G telephony (2008-2011) and 4G (2012). -2018).
According to the co-author ofhe Matin Röösli study, from the Swiss TPH, This is because over time and the advances in cell phones, the transmission capacity of electromagnetic waves by telephones has been reduced.
The study also establishes that the position of the cell phone with respect to the body (for example, if it is frequently kept in the pants pocket) does not influence the greater or lesser concentration of sperm.
However, according to study co-author Rita Rahban, from Unige, the conclusions in this regard are not as robust since the number of young people who did not carry it in their pockets was smaller.
He studyalso co-directed by Serge Nef (Unige), will be published in the medical journal Fertility & Sterility, and seeks to delve into a phenomenon about which all kinds of theories have appeared in recent decades, since the loss of semen quality that has been proven to be suffered by men for half a century.
On average, the concentration has fallen in 50 years from 99 million to 47 million sperm per milliliter, something that experts attribute to environmental phenomena such as exposure to chemicals or radiation. electromagneticbut also to changes in diet, stress or greater tobacco and alcohol consumption.
The experts of the University from Genevawhich in 2019 was the first to conduct a national study on the semen quality of young Swiss people, emphasize that the study published today, being based on a survey on young people’s habits, depends too much on their voluntary responses.
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Given this, the Federal Office of Environment Switzerland has launched new research this year that will more directly study exposure to electromagnetic waves through a mobile application.
Volunteers recruited for the study will be invited to use this application on their mobile phone, which will measure the waves and differentiate them between those generated by calls, messages or Web browsing, something that will also be compared with sperm concentration levels.