from The Epoch Times:
Months of exhaustion, persistent loss of taste and smell, blood clotting issues, and now low sperm count. The list of long-term side effects of COVID-19 continues to expand.
Men, even if their symptoms are mild, experience a decrease in semen quality up to three months after recovering, according to a new study.
“We assumed that semen quality would improve once new sperm were being generated,” said Rocio Núñez-Calonge, who holds a doctorate in biology and is a scientific advisor at UR International Group at the Scientific Reproduction Unit in Spain. “But this was not the case.”
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Concerns About Permanent Damage and Febrility
The small study was conducted in Madrid, Spain, and examined 45 men with mild COVID-19 diagnoses.
Half of the participants experienced a 57 percent decrease in total sperm counts post-diagnosis. Sperm motility fell from 49 to 45 percent.
Additional findings showed a 20 percent reduction in semen volume, a 26.5 percent decrease in sperm concentration, and a decline in the number of live sperm from 80 to 76 percent.
Even 100 days after recovering from the infection, there was no noticeable improvement in sperm quality, despite the expected production of new sperm during that period.
“We do not know how long it might take for semen quality to be restored,” Ms. Núñez-Calonge said. “And it may be the case that COVID has caused permanent damage, even in men who suffered only a mild infection.”
There is no need for immediate concern, according to Dr. Carlos Calhaz-Jorge, a renowned fertility specialist in Portugal. The study shows the significance of long-term monitoring of fertility patients following a COVID-19 infection, even if it is mild, he noted.
“However, it’s important to note that the semen quality in these patients after a COVID infection is still within the World Health Organization’s criteria for ‘normal’ semen and sperm,” Dr. Calhaz-Jorge said. “So it is unclear whether these reductions in semen quality after a COVID infection translate into impaired fertility, and this should be the subject of further research.”
Cause of Semen Quality Decline Unknown
Ms. Núñez-Colange said that inflammation may be a contributing factor. “The inflammatory process can destroy germ cells by infiltrating the white blood cells involved in the immune system and reduce testosterone levels by affecting the interstitial cells that produce the male hormone,” she noted in a press release.
The researchers conducting the study have raised questions about the direct impact of SARS-CoV-2—the virus causing COVID-19—on the decline in semen quality.
