I've Got To Stop . . .

blogging on my laptop while hot tubbing in my tightie whities.

Elevated scrotal temperatures have been linked to male infertility. Many factors can raise scrotal temperature, including hot baths, saunas, and tight jockey shorts.

Laptop computers may also belong on that list, say Sheynkin's team. They studied 29 healthy young men ages 21 to 35 for two, one-hour sessions in a climate-controlled room.

Scrotal temperature rose with the working and nonworking computers. However, the working laptops prompted a greater increase in scrotal temperature -- around 37 degrees Fahrenheit on both sides of the scrotum (2.8 degrees Celsius on the right and 2.6 degrees Celsius on the left).

Participants without working laptops had a scrotal temperature increase of just under 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2.1 degrees Celsius). 

Whew! Fortunately, I use a Mac Powerbook and sit Indian-style. (Is it okay to still say "Indian-style"?)

The researchers used two brands of Pentium 4 laptop computers. The brands aren't identified in the study, which appears in the European journal Human Reproduction .

Technology doesn't deserve all the blame. The position required to balance a laptop computer in the lap -- with thighs close together to balance the computers -- also increases scrotal temperature. Still, the heat generated by the laptops adds to the problem.

In the study, the bottom of the laptop computers rose from about 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Celsius) to almost 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) after an hour. Both brands had similar temperature increases.

"Working on laptop computers in a laptop position causes significant scrotal temperature elevation as a result of heat exposure and posture-related effects," say the researchers.

Update: Just in case it wasn't obvious, my comments are meant as a joke. I take this study to be a joke, notwithstanding the serious nature of the subject.

 

Comments

[Sandy Smith]

Or, if you're like me, you want to get some tight underwear, find an overhot Wintel box of a laptop, and sit in a sauna so fatherhood remains a comfortably distant prospect.