Mobile phones 'cooking' men's sperm?

Are mobile phones 'cooking' men's sperm? A new study says so.

According to fertility experts men who use mobile phones as little as a hour a day is "cooking sperm" and lowering level significantly.

The new study shows that keeping a mobile phone near the testicles or with in a foot or two of the body can lower the sperm level so much so that conceiving could be difficult.

The findings have led to a leading British fertility expert to advise men to stop being addicted to mobile phones.

The study - by highly respected specialists - found that sperm levels of men who kept their phones in their pocket during the day were seriously affected in 47 per cent of cases compare to just 11 per cent in the general population.

Professor Martha Dirnfeld, of the Technion University in Haifa, said: "We analysed the amount of active swimming sperm and the quality and found that it had been reduced.

"We think this is being caused by a heating of the sperm from the phone and by electromagnetic activity."

The team monitored more than 100 men attending a fertility clinic for a year.

They found that besides men keeping their phones close to their groin many spoke on the phone while it was charging and kept it only a few centimetres from their bed.

Even keeping the phone on a bedside table appears to raise lower sperm cell counts

Professor Gedis Grudzinskas, a fertility consult ant St George's Hospital London and in Harley Street said: " Men need to think about their well being and try to stop being addicted to their phones.

"If you wear a suit to work put the mobile in your chest pocket instead of close to your testes. It will reduce the risk of your sperm count dropping or dropping so much.

"And do you need to keep the phone right next to you on the bedside table. Some men keep their mobile in their shorts or pyjamas in bed. Is that really necessary?"

Professor Dirnfeld said: "I think this is a warning to men to change their habits to improve their chances of having children. Women generally don't carry their mobiles on them so maybe a mobile phone won't affect their fertility. That's not something we have looked at."

Professor Alan Pacey, a fertility research scientist at Sheffield University has scoffed at suggestions that mobile phones could be damaging male fertility and insists he will be carry on putting his mobile in his trouser pocket.

Professor Dirnfeld said: "Dr Pacey might not need to worry about his fertility, but for younger guys it is a worry. If you a trying for a baby and it doesn't happen within a year you might want to think of whether it could be your mobile phone habit that is to blame."