According to a new study published in the journal, the researchers found evidence to suggest that men who contract COVID-19 coronavirus may suffer from reduced fertility due to damaged sperm cells. Reproduction.
COVID-19 may reduce male reproductive capacity
COVID-19 disease can kill sperm testicles and inflame them, which can damage the sperm production process and reduce men’s ability to conceive children.
“These effects on sperm cells are associated with lower sperm quality and reduced fertility potential,” said Behzad Hajizadeh Maleki, a doctoral student at Leipzig University of Justice in Germany. MedicalXpress reports. “Although these effects tend to improve over time, they remained significantly and abnormally superior in patients with COVID-19, and the magnitude of these changes was also related to the severity of the disease.”
According to the study, men can contract the virus through direct viral invasion during sexual encounters, after which the virus begins to alter the reproductive processes needed to maintain sexual characteristics. Once this happens, a “secondary inflammatory response induced by viral infection” can occur in the testicles, and the nominal response of fever to infection also interferes with healthy reproductive physiology.
The male reproductive system should be considered a “risk” organ
“The above mechanisms often coexist and have a synergistic effect in mediating impairment,” the new study read.
These recent findings contribute to the ongoing study of the effects of COVID-19 and show us that men recovering from COVID-19 may have difficulty conceiving children, due to an abnormally low sperm quality. Consequently, health professionals should continuously monitor and analyze the reproductive functions of males after a coronavirus infection, so that reproductive problems could be avoided in the future.
“The results of this study also suggest that the male reproductive system should be considered a vulnerable route of COVID-19 infection and that the World Health Organization should declare it a high-risk organ,” he added. Maleki, MedicalXpress reports.
Men became more interested in cryogenically freezing sperm
More extensive studies are needed to validate the findings of this study and to specify precisely how COVID-19 affects male fertility and reproduction. But this same ambiguity adds to a series of pandemic studies that hint at a real danger to men’s reproductive abilities after recovering from the virus.
While we don’t know when more concrete answers will emerge, there is a way to reduce fertility that many men have already addressed.
As of April last year, business had increased for companies sending men return-preservable sperm sample collection kits with return postage, with which men can cryogenically store viable human seeds for a later use.
Men will soon be able to have options to resist the effects of COVID-19
It’s sad to see, however, on a biological level, it seems that men suffer worse luck than women from the biological effects of COVID-19, according to a Johns Hopkins University blog post.
“All over the world, on every continent, we observe that men are significantly more likely to be hospitalized with severe COVID-19, and men are also significantly more likely to die of COVID-19,” said Sabra Klein, a biologist. of Johns Hopkins. blog entry.
The future may look bleak for men, who are more likely than women to be hospitalized, to die, and to become less fertile due to a severe COVID-19 infection. But with scientists beginning to understand how the virus affects male reproductive systems and vaccines circulating worldwide, we can finally say that men will soon be able to have viable options to preserve their lives and those of the next generation.