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Men might be rethinking how they use their wireless internet connected laptops after a new study found that Wi-Fi might damage their sperm.

Using semen specimens collected from 29 donors, researchers placed one part of each donor’s sample under a laptop connected to the internet via Wi-Fi for four hours. They used the other part of each sample as a control, exposing it to identical conditions such as temperature, but without exposure to the laptop Wi-Fi.

According to the New York Daily News, results of the experiment showed that 25% of sperm exposed to the Wi-Fi had stopped swimming, compared to 14% of sperm in the control specimen that stopped swimming. In addition, 9% of sperm exposed to Wi-Fi showed damage to their DNA, but only 3% in the control sample showed damage.

“Our data suggest that the use of a laptop computer wirelessly connected to the internet and positioned near the male reproductive organs may decrease human sperm quality,” researchers said.

Reuters reports that one in six couples experience fertility problems, with men being the cause of the difficulty about half of the time.

The article entitled Use of laptop computers connected to internet through Wi-Fi decreases human sperm motility and increases sperm DNA fragmentation appears in Fertility and Sterility, the journal of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

Another study published in the February 2005 Oxford Journal of Human Reproduction found that using a laptop on the lap significantly increased the heat exposure of the scrotum, called hyperthermia, which can lead to low sperm count and infertility.

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