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Is Your Laptop Cooking Your Testicles?
Velcroman1 writes "Whoever invented the 'laptop' probably didn't worry too much about male reproductive health. Turns out, unsurprisingly, that sitting with a computer on your lap will crank up the temperature of your nether regions, which could affect sperm quality. And there is little you can do about it, according to the authors of a study out today in the journal Fertility and Sterility, short of putting your laptop on a desk. The researchers hooked thermometers to the scrotums of 29 young men (!) who were balancing a laptop on their knees. They found that even with a lap pad under the computer, the men's scrotums overheated quickly. 'Millions and millions of men are using laptops now, especially those in the reproductive age range,' said Dr. Yefim Sheynkin, a urologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who led the new study."
Despite what may seem obvious, it wasn't so much the heat coming from the computer that was doing it. When you think about it, the hot parts of a laptop are a good distance away from your scrotum (or, at least, they should be if you're not doin' it wrong). The researchers found that it was the leg position used to keep the computer on the lap - i.e., legs closed together - that was the source of the problem. Keeping your legs together while seated was the strongest cause in the rise in scrotal temperature, because you're surrounding your nads with warm parts of the body and covering surface area that would help remove heat. The researchers found that keeping your legs apart would mitigate the problem, but only a little, because then you'd need a large laptop pad bridging the gap, which covers your nethers right back up. Or you could get a humongously wide laptop.
Somehow, I'm thinking that the future of the human race is not imperiled by laptops making men infertile. At least, not in that way.
Does that include people dumb enough to rely on a "laptop" computer for birth control?
I highly, highly recommend that you both buy long-term care insurance. If that's your late-retirement plan, be prepared for it.
My wife's grandparents worked hard their whole lives and saved nearly everything, but after he died and his pensions + social security cut off, her $4600 a month nursing home bill has been draining their savings at an alarming rate.
You do not want to rely on Medicare for this. You'll be stuck in a sub-par home because choices for Medicare beds are limited.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.