Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Dec 9;16(1):118.
doi: 10.1186/s12958-018-0431-1.

Radiations and male fertility

Affiliations
Review

Radiations and male fertility

Kavindra Kumar Kesari et al. Reprod Biol Endocrinol. .

Abstract

During recent years, an increasing percentage of male infertility has to be attributed to an array of environmental, health and lifestyle factors. Male infertility is likely to be affected by the intense exposure to heat and extreme exposure to pesticides, radiations, radioactivity and other hazardous substances. We are surrounded by several types of ionizing and non-ionizing radiations and both have recognized causative effects on spermatogenesis. Since it is impossible to cover all types of radiation sources and their biological effects under a single title, this review is focusing on radiation deriving from cell phones, laptops, Wi-Fi and microwave ovens, as these are the most common sources of non-ionizing radiations, which may contribute to the cause of infertility by exploring the effect of exposure to radiofrequency radiations on the male fertility pattern. From currently available studies it is clear that radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) have deleterious effects on sperm parameters (like sperm count, morphology, motility), affects the role of kinases in cellular metabolism and the endocrine system, and produces genotoxicity, genomic instability and oxidative stress. This is followed with protective measures for these radiations and future recommendations. The study concludes that the RF-EMF may induce oxidative stress with an increased level of reactive oxygen species, which may lead to infertility. This has been concluded based on available evidences from in vitro and in vivo studies suggesting that RF-EMF exposure negatively affects sperm quality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This is a review and did not need ethical clearance.

Consent for publication

All mentioned authors were involved in the writing of this review and gave consent for its publication.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Diagrammatic representation of various source of RF EMF exposure effect on brain and testicular organ and deleterious outcome
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
An overview on the effects of RF EMF exposure, emitting from various sources (cell phone, microwave oven, Wi-Fi, Laptop) on genotoxic parameters. The proposed mechanism suggesting radiation-induced oxidative damage may increase DNA damage, micronuclei formation and leading cancer progression. This has been linked to distorted sperm head and mitochondrial sheath in sperm tail which leads to apoptosis and finally cancer progression

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Prausnitz S, Susskind C. Effects of chronic microwave irradiation on mice. Ire Trans Biomed Electron. 1962;9:104–108. doi: 10.1109/TBMEL.1962.4322972. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bullock J, Boyle J, Wang MB, Ajello RR. Physiology. Pennsylvania: Harwal Publishing Company; 1984.
    1. Baverstock K. Radiation-induced genomic instability: a paradigm-breaking phenomenon and its relevance to environmentally induced cancer. Mutat Res. 2000;454:89–109. doi: 10.1016/S0027-5107(00)00100-7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Martin RH, Hildebrand K, Yamamoto J, Rademaker A, Barnes M, Douglas G, Arthur K, Ringrose T, Brown IS. An increased frequency of human sperm chromosomal abnormalities after radiotherapy. Mutat Res. 1986;174:219–225. doi: 10.1016/0165-7992(86)90155-7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fischbein A, Zabludovsky N, Eltes F, Grischenko V, Bartoov B. Ultramorphological sperm characteristics in the risk assessment of health effects after radiation exposure among salvage workers in Chernobyl. Environ Health Perspect. 1997;105:1445–1449. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms