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PARIS: COVID-19 may damage sperm quality and reduce fertility in men, according to a new study based on experimental evidence.
The viral disease, which has spread around the world and claimed nearly 2.2 million lives, can lead to increased sperm death, inflammation and so-called oxidative stress, researchers reported Friday (May 29). January) in Reproduction magazine.
“These findings provide the first direct experimental evidence that the male reproductive system could be attacked and damaged by COVID-19,” the authors concluded.
However, experts who commented on the research said the virus’s ability to compromise fertility in men has yet to be proven.
COVID-19 causes respiratory illness, especially in older people and those with underlying medical problems.
The world has seen more than 100 million confirmed cases since the disease emerged in central China in late 2019.
Transmitted through respiratory droplets, the disease attacks the lungs, kidneys, intestines, and heart.
It can also infect male reproductive organs, affecting sperm development and disrupting reproductive hormones, previous studies have shown. The same receptors the virus uses to access lung tissue are also found in the testes.
But the virus’s effects on men’s reproductive capacity remain unclear.
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Behzad Hajizadeh Maleki and Bakhtyar Tartibian from Justus-Liebig University in Germany looked for biological markers that could indicate a negative impact on fertility.
Analysis performed at 10-day intervals for 60 days in 84 men with COVID-19 was compared with data from 105 healthy men.
In COVID-19 patients, sperm showed a significant increase in markers of inflammation and oxidative stress, a chemical imbalance that can damage the body’s DNA and proteins.
“STRONG NOTE OF CAUTION”
“These effects on sperm are associated with lower sperm quality and reduced fertility potential,” Maleki said in a statement.
“Although these effects tended to improve over time, they remained significantly and abnormally higher in COVID-19 patients.”
The more severe the disease, the greater the changes, he added.
The male reproductive system “should be considered a vulnerable route of infection by COVID-19 and declared a high-risk organ by the World Health Organization,” Maleki said.
Experts who were not involved in the study welcomed the research, but cautioned that more was needed before jumping to hard and fast conclusions.
“Men should not be unduly alarmed,” said Alison Campbell, director of embryology at CARE Fertility Group in Great Britain.
“There is currently no definitive evidence of lasting damage caused by COVID-19 to sperm or male reproductive potential,” he told the London-based Science Media Center.
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The results could have been biased, he added, by the fact that the men recovering from COVID-19 were treated with corticosteroids and antiviral therapies, while the control group was not.
Allan Pacey, a male reproductive medicine specialist at the University of Sheffield, provided a “strong note of caution” on how the data was interpreted.
Some of the indicators of declining sperm quality could be due to factors other than COVID-19, he said, noting that more men in the COVID-19 group were overweight.
The simple fact that only one group was very ill, regardless of the cause, must also be taken into account, he added.
“We already know that a febrile illness can affect sperm production, regardless of the cause.”
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