(ORDO NEWS) — Just as many thought the worst was over and the future simply couldn’t get darker, scientists published research findings that Covid-19 lowers male fertility and could contribute to planetary depopulation.
Scientists report that they have increasing evidence of testicular damage and decreased sperm count and motility in patients with coronavirus, with initial studies showing the presence of the virus in semen samples.
Researchers from Justus Liebig University of Giessen in Germany, along with colleagues from Allameh Tabatabai University of Tehran in Iran, reported the presence of markers of inflammation in testicular tissue samples from 84 Covid-19 patients. They found that inflammation and cellular stress in the Covid-positive group were twice as high as in the control group.
The scientists also noted that sperm motility in patients with coronavirus was three times lower, and their number in general is significantly lower. The study showed that sperm concentration decreased by 516 percent, motility by 209 percent, and the shape of the sperm cells changed by 400 percent. The authors noted that such changes are characteristic of oligoasthenoteratozoospermia, one of the most common causes of decreased reproductive capacity in men.
“The effect of the virus on sperm is associated with lower sperm quality and reduced fertility potential,” said lead researcher Behzad Hajizadeh Maleki. “Although these effects tend to diminish over time, they remained abnormally high in patients with Covid-19, and the magnitude of the change was also associated with the severity of the disease.”
In addition, researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan called for a long-term study of the virus’s effect on male fertility. “We believe there is an urgent need to track male patients with Covid-19 throughout the recovery period,” said microbiologist Yu Tian and reproductive biologist Liquan Zhou.
Previous research has also indicated a correlation between the virus and decreased fertility. For example, last year a study by the University of Miami showed that Covid-19 can penetrate testicular tissue and impair sperm function. In January 2021, a research review published in the journal Open Biology warned that the coronavirus poses a “global threat to male fertility potential.”
Spanish scientists, who analyzed 63,822 case histories in 50 clinics during the first wave of the pandemic, also reported warning signs that the virus was infecting male reproductive organs.
A study by Professor Dan Aderka of the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv found the virus was present in 13 percent of semen samples taken from Covid-19 patients. The scientist also found a 50 percent reduction in sperm volume, concentration and motility in patients with mild symptoms thirty days after diagnosis.
Another study last year by scientists from China‘s Shangqiu University found the virus in semen, raising fears that the disease could be sexually transmitted.
The list of studies linking the virus to potential male infertility is endless.
However, global fertility rates have been declining at an astonishing rate even before the onset of the current Covid-19 pandemic. One study, published in the prestigious journal The Lancet, highlights that global fertility rates have nearly halved to 2.4 in 2017, with projections suggesting that by 2100 it will fall below 1.7.
Several other studies concluded that “the total sperm count in men in North America, Australia and New Zealand fell by 60 percent over the 38 years between 1973 and 2011,” and more recent studies have shown that this trend continues.
In addition, there are predictions that the outbreak of Covid-19 will lead to a huge decline in fertility, as many people simply choose not to have children at such a time.
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