Getting sick of Covid-19 may involve a temporary reduced fertility in men. In fact, motility and sperm count could be compromised for at least 6 months. This is the result of a research coordinated by Genk Institute for Fertility Technology published in the scientific journal Fertility and Sterility. The work was conducted on 118 men who had been infected with the Sars Cov-2 virus during the first wave.
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The researchers were able to ascertain that the RNA of Sars Cov-2 was not present in the spermatozoa, but they noted the impaired motility and their number both in the short term and two months later. Mean mobility was reduced in 60% of men tested within one month of infection, in 37% of those tested between one and two months, and in 28% of men tested over two months after the disease. The average number of spermatozoa, on the other hand, was reduced in 37% of the men tested within one month, in 29% of the men tested between one and two months and in 6% of the sample examined over two months after infection.
For scholars, the most severe forms of Sars Cov-2 infection have been linked, however, to lower sperm motility and morphology scores.
The confirmation of these effects also comes from a work byUniversity of Georgia Published on Nature Reviews Urology: the virus could infect the cells of the testicles, damaging them. For the researchers, there is evidence of some cases of Sars Cov-2-induced orchitis, altered hormone levels, and testicular damage.
A work of the Boston University School of Public Health which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology instead made a comparison between men and women on fertility. The vaccine does not appear to affect her in either sex. But Covid infection, in males, yes. The study found that fertility rates among women who received at least one dose of the vaccine were nearly identical to unvaccinated participants. Fertility was also similar for male partners who had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine compared to unvaccinated ones.
Although Covid-19 infection was not strongly associated with fertility, men who tested positive for Covid-19 within 60 days had reduced fertility compared to those who had never tested positive or those who had tested positive at least two months earlier.