Laptops May Be Hazardous to Your Fertility

Spy der Mann writes "Researchers find that men who place portable computers on their laps are inadvertently raising the temperature of their scrotums -- and possibly damaging their sperm. Guess laptops should get a namechange soon... before our fertility does."

Comments

Re:That's okay ...

[calibanDNS]

Has there ever been a poll about this? It'd be nice to have some idea how many slashdotters are married/committed.

MYTH ALERT !!!

[Naikrovek]

Before some of you conclude on your own that this is dangerous, read this.

On this site a few months back ("few" = [3..12]) I read a story about some swedish dudes who found a way to cheaply and without prescription make themselves sterile. Their way? To dunk their testes in water that is over 105F for an hour a day.

this killed their sperm, but the effect IS NOT PERMANENT! You will not permanetly damage anything by doing this. The effect lasts weeks but is not permanent.

If you're into painful male birth control, perhaps this is an option for you.

Guys, putting a laptop on your lap for extended periods of time will only make you temporarily less likely to conceive. It will not prevent you from generating sperm, and it will not last forever.

Re:MYTH ALERT !!!

[anakin876]

What about STDs? And anyways, vasectomies aren't necessarily permanent (check out an earlier comment where someone mentioned they had their third kid after a vasectomy)

My theory

[bogaboga]

Is it why in most disadvantaged African societies, where young boys do not wear pants, one finds them very very sexualy potent well into their adult life. One also finds their tools (read pen*s) are really big for their age compared to western societies?

Imagine: Despite the AIDS epidemic, the African population is still growing astronomically and is predicted to be one-fourth of the world's in 5 decades.

As an African myself, I think this has something to do with the temperature on one's body "down there", where the tool is left to dangle in the air. Men on that continent remain sexually active well into their 80's. My grandfather married again at 82, and Uganda's former president (Binaisa) who is 86 recently married a Japanese - http://pages.globetrotter.net/mleblank/msd/nv-moon -12-09-2004.html May be it's the genes or the food the people eat. It has been said that food on that continent is less contaminated with additives since most farmers are too poor to afford things like that.

If the above theory is correct, it might explain why the population of Africans in general, despite all the hardships continues to grow.

Now, the above are facts so do not mod me down. In my home country, these is [almost] no market for Viagra and the like.

Re:My theory

[Anonymous Coward]

The thing to remember is that in undeveloped or developing nations, your kids are probably the closest thing you have to a pension plan.

Therefore, if the child mortality rate is about ten times the rate in the USA, wouldn't you have a few more in order to improve the chances that at least a couple made it through to adulthood so as to look after you when you're too old to work?

There is a simple solution

[lost in wet snow]

Do what I using my cheapo Compaq: use a laptop desk. I have been using the Lapinator, but others might work too. KISS: Keep it simple, s***head

Seriously for a minute...

[goodEvans]

To those of you who have actually managed to reproduce:

By the time you are getting around to worrying about hot laptops, the damage may already be done. Disposable nappies have been shown to increase scrotum temperature to 1 degree above body temp - and a scrotum should be BELOW body temp. This article in the Australian ABC news site from the same wire story references the problem. I know it's a small scall study, but think about it: a few hours a week with a hot laptop on your lap, compared to two to three YEARS locked inside a plastic bag, during a vital developmental stage. On report I saw pointed out that the decline in male sperm counts coincides with the introduction of disposable nappies.

My 6 month old boy is kept almost entirely in washable nappies, of the type made by Happy Hienys, Fuzzi Bunz, etc. They are as convenient as disposables to put on, much neater than the terry squares you would traditionally associate with washable nappies, and they just work.

Now the shameless plug: We have been so impressed with these nappies that my wife is setting up to sell them at babyaloo.com. The site isn't up yet, but it will be in a couple of days.

Evolution?

[jellomizer]

Being fat is unhealthy. There is something wrong with being unhealthy. ... Either they have a genetic problem, which means they need to take more extreme measures to be fit, or they are addicted to food

It seems you beleave in self controlled darwinism. Making decisions on what you think is the survival of the fittest. How fat a person is a combination of their genetics and their environment. Some enviroments are easier to controll you weight. Others are much more dificult. Why are Rich People usually thinner then Poor people it is because they have exta cash that they can spend to go to the gym. While poor people who work 6-5 barly have enough free time and daylight to exersize. Joggin in the middle of the night in some locations is not safe. But if you want to think about it in more of an evelutionary standpoint. If our curent grouth of population we will soon outpase the speed that we can produce food thus having a global famin. Now the people who are geneticly fat will have a better chance of surviving because there slower motabilism is more effective converting food to energy. While the thin people will probably starve first. Let nature decide who is fit for survival, and let yourself choose who you want to have children with, based on who you are attracted to.