How tight jeans, laptop decrease male fertility - Expert
With the high prevalence of infertility amongst couples in the country, a fertility expert, Dr Arati Sohoni, has warned men against wearing tight jeans, under garments as well as working continuously with laptops on their laps.
She said such habits cause a rise in temperature and harm sperm production and count in men.
“You know the testes are placed in the scrotum, and not inside our body because they are at low body temperature. So if you wear tight jeans and other tight wears, then the temperature tends to rise and that can harm the sperm, and sperm production as well,” said Dr Sohoni at the fifth anniversary celebration of the Abuja branch of the Nordica Fertility Centre in Abuja.
“So we recommend not to wear tight jeans and undies especially for men. They should also avoid lifestyles like smoking, alcohol consumption, and other things that affect their sperm count,” she said.
Dr Sohoni said there was also a link between use of laptops and fertility especially in men working with the computer on their laps.
She said a particular study revealed that men’s use of laptops on their laps for more than one hour killed sperms because of the heat.
The study checked and analysed the semen of the men after they used laptop on top of their laps for more than one hour, and found dead sperm inside, she said.
“So it does affect the sperm count. It also affects the fertility of women who work with laptops continuously on their laps because of ovulation, but the effect is more on men than women,” Sohoni added.
She said infertility was one of the greatest challenges couples faced in Nigeria and that the prevalence has become such that one in four couples experience delay in achieving conception.
The fertility expert advised couples to seek medical help as early as possible, adding that if the wife was more than 35 years old, couples should seek help if they were not able to achieve pregnancy within six months of their marriage.
Dr Sohoni said the Abuja branch has done more than 1000 Invitro fertilization (IVF) cycles and produced more than 500 IVF babies since inception.
She said that more than 2,500 babies have been produced in all the Nordica centres in Lagos, Asaba and Abuja since it was first established in Lagos in 2003.
She said some of the factors contributing to female infertility were pelvic infections, blocked tubes, fibroids and ovulation dysfunction, among others, while those contributing to male infertility were low sperm count, distended testis, infection and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the past, among others.
Head of Business Development at Nordica, Olakunle Oyebanjo, said the hospital had the lowest rate of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS), a complication which results from over stimulation of the ovaries with fertility medications and hormones.