Research
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Increased scrotal temperature from tight clothing, hot baths, or laptop use impairs fertility by increasing ROS generation, DNA fragmentation, and apoptosis.
Avoid activities that increase scrotal temperature, such as wearing tight underwear, taking hot baths, or placing laptops on your lap. These can impair sperm quality by increasing oxidative stress and DNA fragmentation.
ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
The exposure of testes to an increase of temperature can impair fertility through the alteration of sperm parameters (number, motility and morphology) and the damage of sperm membrane integrity
Why this rating
The paper cites animal and human studies, but notes conflicting data on mobile phones and laptops, and limited evidence on scrotal cooling efficacy.
Source
Lifestyle and fertility: the influence of stress and quality of life on male fertility
Alessandro Ilacqua et al. · Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology · 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12958-018-0436-9
narrative_reviewCited 308×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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