The study, published in the journal of Fertility and Sterility, claims that the studied men had a reduction of around 50 percent on average of the number of sperm per milliliter, total volume of ejaculate, and motility of sperm.
Nobody knows yet how severe this problem is and these effects are reversible or not. Infection is accepted as a possible underlying cause of male infertility. For example mumps may have a long term effect on fertility of male patients and can cause azoospermia, so we know viruses can have such an impact.
Dr Shobha Gupta, Medical Director and
"Every time there is a new thing coming up with this virus, we are still learning and if the person has low immunity and is prone to catch the infection in any way the sperm count is affected and can cause male infertility" she added.
Dr Shweta Goswami, Sr. Consultant IVF from Jaypee Hospital Noida and IVF Consultant from
Mask-wearing can help to protect their fertility during the pandemic, even if one ultimately becomes infected.
"Men who have moderate or serious Covid-19 infections could find their fertility impaired for an unknown amount of time. Because mild cases don't seem to affect fertility, I would advise men to wear facemasks. This way, even if they get sick, their immune systems will be dealing with a smaller viral load and consequently they'll have a milder form of the disease and there has to be more studies to confirm how severe this problem is, once the patient recovers semen parameters may improve" said Dr.
"If people are protected by a mask, and the smaller the load of catching the infection, the better the immune system's chances of beating the virus while still in the mild stage and having minimal impact on sperm" added Dr. Anubha Singh.
Choose a healthy life and take precautions, as this virus is very new and nobody knows how to recover from it or how not to catch the infection. So we have to be our on guard till the vaccine comes. Follow these advices as precautions to protect fertility:
Wear Masks and do proper sanitizing- Avoid being overweight
- Do not smoke and refrain yourself as much as you can from consuming alcohol
- Do not wear tight underwear as it can affect the circulation of blood in the genital region and raise the temperature of the testicles which further decreases the sperm count
- Avoid keeping mobile phones near genital area as it causes radiation also do not place laptops on your lap as it can raise the scrotum temperature
- Eat nutritious food and exercise regularly to maintain healthy immunity