What is harmful for male fertility: Cell phone or the wireless internet?

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to assess the potential harmful effects of radiofrequency-electromagnetic radiation on sperm parameters. We requested semen for analyses from the male patients coming to our infertility division and also asked them to fill out an anonymous questionnaire. We queried their mobile phone and wireless Internet usage frequencies in order to determine their radiofrequency-electromagnetic radiation exposure. A total of 1082 patients filled the questionnaire but 51 of them were excluded from the study because of azoospermia. There was no significant difference between sperm counts and sperm morphology excluding sperm motility, due to mobile phone usage period, (p = 0.074, p = 0.909, and p = 0.05, respectively). The total motile sperm count and the progressive motile sperm count decreased due to the increase of internet usage (p = 0.032 and p = 0.033, respectively). In line with the total motile sperm count, progressive motile sperm count also decreased with wireless Internet usage compared with the wired Internet connection usage (p = 0.009 and p = 0.018, respectively). There was a negative correlation between wireless Internet usage duration and the total sperm count (r = -0.089, p = 0.039). We have also explored the negative effect of wireless Internet use on sperm motility according to our preliminary results.

Inhibition by Egb761 of the effect of cellphone radiation on the male reproductive system

“…It has been recently reported that cellphones could cause infertility as well (36,37). Although the effects of cellphone EMR were investigated by many studies, some current results are controversial (5,38). Cellphone EMR waves induce oxidative stress and affect testicular structure and functions; (9) spermatogenesis is impacted (11,39) and it may lead to future infertility.…”

A survey based study of public perception towards cell phone use and its association with health complications in an urban setting of Dhaka City

“…ICNIRP has declared 0.08W/kg as the tolerance limit for public health (ICNIRP, 2009). Infertility has also been demonstrated in different studies for electromagnetic radiation (Yildirim et al, 2015). From these perspectives of health complications, the main concern is that most of the people in this study were found to be unaware of the critical side effects of cell phones.…”

Influence of radiofrequency–electromagnetic waves from 3rd‐generation cellular phones on fertilization and embryo development in mice

“…In regard to the effects of cellular phone RF‐EMW exposure on reproductive function, studies of spermatozoa have examined some long‐term effects of in vivo exposure in rats. One such study reported a significant reduction in the sperm motility rate [Mailankot et al, ], while other reports found no significant effects [Dasdag et al, ; Ribeiro et al, ; Imai et al, ; Yildirim et al, ]. In addition, we reported that cellular phone RF‐EMWs have no adverse effects on human spermatozoa [Nakatani‐Enomoto et al, ].…”