One of the most destructive and pervasive internet falsehoods is that the COVID-19 vaccine Cause Male Infertility. While that notion has been debunked. the virus\’s harmful impact on fertility has become well-established. Since the beginning of the pandemic, researchers have been tracking the disease\’s harmful impact on male fertility. The investigation was steppe up after it was discovere that the virus affects male patients. More severely than female ones, presumably due to the virus\’s transmission method.
What does COVID have to do with being a man?
SARS-CoV-2 must bind to an ACE2 receptor, a protein located on the surface of cells in the mouth, lungs, heart. And other parts of the body, to enter and begin replicating in the human body. The male testis has the greatest amount of ACE2 mRNA expression of all the tissues in the body. Raising concerns that it could be a target for viral invasion and harm.
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Are there any effects on male COVID patients\’ fertility?
There is evidence that in some male patients, especially those who had a severe case and were hospitalize. Due to the disease, fertility and sexual function may disturbed. Here\’s a quick rundown of what patients healing from COVID-19 have described in research studies:
- Around the time of their diagnosis, 19 percent of participants in one research had scrotal discomfort suggestive of virus-induced inflammation.
- Chinese study of males who\’d all previously fathered at least one child without any reproductive help, 39 percent of patients had clinically low sperm count. In 61 percent of cases, sperm function was impaire.
- In one study, 33 percent of the sperm samples revealed inadequate sperm quality and reduced swimming capacity. A quarter of the patients said they had low libido, and one patient say he couldn\’t get an erection. Significant hormone changes were also observe in the patients, indicating a problem with fertility.
- An Iranian study identified imbalances of free radicals and antioxidants, evidence of inflammation, and the activation of pathways that facilitate sperm cell death after evaluating semen samples from patients every ten days for 60 days. Sperm concentration and swimming ability were lower by 516 percent and 209 percent, respectively.
- According to an Italian study that asked online survey participants to self-report COVID diagnosis and erectile dysfunction symptoms, the disease roughly sixfold increases the likelihood of erectile dysfunction.
Researchers discovered the following after reviewing autopsy of deceased patients:
In a Florida study, 50 percent of biopsies revealed a reduced ability to make sperm. Inflammation was see in 17% of the cases. Swelling and congestion of the testes, a symptom of localized infection, were widespread, as were damaging changes to the seminiferous tubules where sperm forms. There was scrotal edema and congestion, red blood cells in the testes and epididymis tube, thinning of the seminiferous tubules, and a high amount of dead sperm cells.
Cause Male Infertility
According to a recent study released by Belgian researchers. Coronavirus has found to have a negative impact on sperm quality, count, and motility months after infection. For the study, the researchers studied the sperm samples of 120 Belgian males who had recovered from symptomatic COVID-19 infection.
Sperm motility was found to reduced in 60% of men who submitted their samples less than one month after recovering from the illness. 37% in men who submitted their samples two months later. And 28% of men who submitted their samples more than two months later, according to Belgian researchers.
Gilbert Donders, the study\’s chief investigator and chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Regional Hospital Heilig Hart in Tienen, Belgium, warned in this regard that sperm quality can impaired for months after recovering from Coronavirus. Gilbert stated that sperm quality should increase three months after recovering from COVID-19. But additional research is needed to confirm this and identify whether the infection causes permanent sperm harm.
Sperm count declined in 37% of men who submitted samples less than one month after recovering from the illness, 29% of men who submitted samples two months later, and 6% of men who submitted samples more than two months later.
In addition, 2.5 percent of men had significant anti-sperm antibodies, which attack sperm in the blood and sperm in the sperm.
Belgian researchers found no link between the severity of COVID-19 infection and reduced sperm qualities, although the semen itself was not contaminate with SARS-COV-2, the Coronavirus that causes COVID-19 sickness.