Study Suggests COVID-19 Harms Men’s Fertility, But Experts Question Findings

FRIDAY, Jan. 22, 2021 (HealthDay Information) — Severe COVID-19 could possibly harm men’s fertility by decreasing the high quality of their sperm, a new examine suggests, but some gurus ended up skeptical about the conclusions.

In the review, researchers analyzed semen from 84 guys with COVID-19 and 105 uninfected men. Their semen was examined every 10 times for 60 days, CNN described.

When compared to the uninfected men, those people with COVID-19 experienced significant raises in inflammation and oxidative anxiety in sperm cells, and the virus was also tied to decreased sperm concentration, mobility and condition.

The variances grew with the severity of COVID-19, in accordance to the examine revealed in the journal Replica.

“This report offers the to start with immediate proof to date that COVID-19 an infection impairs semen good quality and male reproductive potential,” guide researcher Behzad Hajizadeh Maleki, a doctoral college student at Justus Liebig College in Giessen, Germany, and colleagues wrote, CNN described.

But gurus who were not involved in the examine expressed concerns about the results.

“I have to have to increase a solid take note of caution in their interpretation of this information. For case in point, the authors condition that their facts demonstrates that ‘COVID-19 an infection results in considerable impairments of male reproductive purpose,’ however it only truly reveals an affiliation,” Allan Pacey, professor of reproductive endocrinology and andrology at the University of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, U.K., advised CNN.

“Becoming sick from any virus such as flu can quickly fall your sperm rely [sometimes to zero] for a few months or months. This tends to make it tough to operate out how considerably of the reductions observed in this research were particular to COVID-19 somewhat than just from currently being ill,” Channa Jayasena, a guide in reproductive endocrinology and andrology at Imperial Higher education London, U.K., informed CNN.

It is “vital to notice that there is no proof of COVID-19 virus in the semen and that there is no proof that virus can be transmitted through semen,” Alison Murdoch, head of the Newcastle Fertility Centre at the Intercontinental Centre for Existence, Newcastle College, U.K., told CNN.

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