Humans in modern society are exposed to an ever-increasing number of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated from the production and supply of electricity, television sets, personal computer (PC), radio communication, and mobile communication, hence, it has become a public health issue. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted from new generation laptop computers on sperm quality and reproductive hormone of male albino rats. Male albino rats (10-12 weeks old) were exposed to RF-EMR from laptop computers which were grouped based on different exposure period (2hours, 4hours, 6hours and 8hours) for 4 weeks. The semen samples were obtained by caudal puncture of the epididymis from each participant for sperm quality analysis and blood collected by cardiac puncture for hormonal analysis using the chemiluminescent microparticles immunoassay method. The analysis of variance was done for the hormonal concentration and sperm quality parameters to check for the significance difference at 5% level of significance. The Dunnett’s multiple comparison test was done to test for significance comparison of radiation exposed groups and control group. Exposure to laptop computer display unit was associated with significant reduction in sperm motility, sperm viability and sperm count (P<0.0001), testosterone level (P<0.001), follicle stimulating hormone level (P<0.01). For the sperm morphology, there was no significant difference in the normal cells for the experimental setup, however, the appearance of abnormal cells in the exposed rats (2 – 8 hrs) were significant (P≤0.001). This study therefore showed that EMR from a charging laptop can significantly affect semen quality, male fertility and rendered male reproductive hormone unstable with no effect on prostrate specific antigens.

Objective: The sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) guides the clinician’s choice of an appropriate assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedure. The DFI can be determined using commercially available methodologies, including sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) kits and sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA). Currently, when DFI is evaluated using SCD kits, the result is analyzed in reference to the SCSA-derived threshold for the choice of an ART procedure. In this study, we compared DFI values obtained using SCSA with those obtained using SCD and determined whether the difference affects the choice of ART procedure.Methods: We compared SCSA to two SCD kits, CANfrag (n=36) and Halosperm (n=31), to assess the DFI values obtained, the correlations between tests, the technical repeatability, and the impact of DFI on the choice of ART. Results: We obtained higher median DFI values using SCD kits than when using SCSA, and this difference was significant for the CANfrag kit (p<0.001). The SCD kits had significantly higher coefficients of variation than SCSA (p<0.0001). In vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) would be chosen for a significantly higher proportion of patients if a decision were made based on DFI derived from SCD rather than DFI determined using SCSA (p=0.003). Conclusion: Our results indicate that SCD kit-specific thresholds should be established in order to avoid the unnecessary use of IVF/ICSI based on sperm DNA damage for the management of infertility. Appropriate measures should be taken to mitigate the increased variability inherent to the methods used in these tests.