Covid-19 causes respiratory diseases, especially in the elderly.
Paris, France:
Covid-19 may damage sperm quality and reduce fertility in men, according to a new study based on experimental tests.
Viral disease, which has ravaged the world with nearly 2.2 million lives, can cause an increase in sperm cell death, inflammation and so-called oxidative stress, researchers reported Friday in the journal Reproduction.
“These findings provide the first direct experimental evidence that the male reproductive system could be targeted and harmed by Covid-19,” the authors concluded.
However, experts who commented on the research said the virus’s ability to compromise male fertility has not yet been demonstrated.
Covid-19 causes respiratory diseases, especially in the elderly and with underlying medical problems.
The world has seen more than 100 million confirmed cases since the disease emerged in central China in late 2019.
The disease, transmitted by respiratory drops, attacks the lungs, kidneys, intestines and heart.
It can also infect male reproductive organs, altering the development of sperm cells and altering reproductive hormones, as previous studies have shown. The same receptors that the virus uses to access lung tissue are also found in the testicles.
But the effects of the virus on men’s ability to reproduce were unclear.
Behzad Hajizadeh Maleki and Bakhtyar Tartibian of Justus-Liebig University in Germany looked for biological markers that could indicate a negative impact on fertility.
The analysis performed at ten-day intervals for 60 days in 84 men with Covid-19 was compared with data from 105 healthy men.
In patients with Covid-19, sperm cells showed a significant increase in markers of inflammation and oxidative stress, a chemical imbalance that can damage DNA and proteins in the body.
“Strong note of caution”
“These effects on sperm cells are associated with lower sperm quality and reduced fertility potential,” Maleki said in a statement.
“Although these effects tend to improve over time, they remained significantly and abnormally higher in patients with Covid-19.”
The more serious 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 did not participate in the study welcomed the research, but warned that more was needed before drawing quick and harsh conclusions.
“Men should not be unduly alarmed,” noted Alison Campbell, director of embryology at the CARE Fertility Group in Britain.
“There is currently no definitive evidence of long-term damage caused by Covid-19 to the reproductive potential of sperm or males,” he told the Science Media Center in London.
The results could have been skewed, he added, because the men recovering from Covid 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, raised a “cautionary note” about the way the data was interpreted.
Some of the indicators of decreased sperm quality could be due to other factors in addition to Covid-19, 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) was also necessary to take into account, he added.
“We already know that a febrile illness can affect sperm production, regardless of what causes it.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)