Beyond the horrific COVID-19 death toll a series of health conditions are still beginning to unfold. One concern that may require closer inspection is the effect of the virus on male fertility.
Scientists have been suspecting for some time that the SARS virus has the potential to cause damage by sperm count. A review of the state of the research, coupled with strong new evidence, confirms the need to monitor male reproductive systems as vulnerable pathways for coronavirus infection.
Researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China analyzed existing reports on mechanisms that could employ SARS-CoV-2 to inhibit male reproduction.
Although they could not say with confidence that there was a clear reduction in fertility, they warned that there was every reason to pay close attention to potential.
“We suggest that there is an urgent need to detect male COVID-19 patients while they are recovering,” argues the biologist Yu Tian and reproductive biologist Li-quan Zhou in the their report.
Medical researchers have become very familiar with how SARS-CoV-2 slips into our bodies and stimulates the accumulation of destructive immune responses.
At the heart of the breakdown and insertion strategy is a common cell receptor called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, or ACE2. Wherever the body uses this enzyme, it is a strong promise that SARS-CoV-2 will leave its mark, putting many organs at risk.
This means that the virus not only affects our olfactory and respiratory system, but can affect our digestive system, leaving our circulatory system on. weaken, and even stimulate inflammatory responses deep within our brain.
The fact is that the inside of the testes is just one more target that could be missed on researchers. Early studies detecting the presence of the virus in semen samples contributed to the growing need for screening.
But the conclusions were certainly not consistent. Previous research on SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1, also tended to dispel serious concerns that the testes were vulnerable, with most studies failing to detect any any of the virus inside his figs.
Now, however, the weight of evidence now seems to skim well for arguments that testicular tension is usually damaged as a direct result of COVID.
A recently published longitudinal study conducted by researchers from Justus-Liebig University in Germany and Allameh Tabataba’i University in Iran reports direct experimental evidence of such damage.
Instead their study looked at swelling symptoms in tight samples from 84 men tested for COVID-19, along with 105 controls. They also evaluated sperm quality and found signs for oxidative stress in the samples.
It was clear after COVID-19 a slight difference, with inflammation and cell pressure showing twice as bad in those diagnosed positive for the virus, compared to those which was not.
In addition, the sperm of infected men was about three times as slow, and their sperm counts were also significantly lower.
“These effects on sperm cells are associated with lower sperm quality and lower fertility potential,” says lead researcher Behzad Hajizadeh Maleki, a sports scientist from Justus-Liebig-University.
“While these effects tended to worsen over time, they remained significantly and significantly higher in COVID-19 patients, and the magnitude of these changes was also related to the level of disease. “
It is unclear what this means for men recovering from SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially in the long term. The authors of both the study and the experimental study want more research before figuring out how – or even at least – the reduced pregnancy will have any real impact on birth efforts.
However, with many countries around the world already in a fertility crisis that promises to curb future population growth, COVID-19 could be another hurdle to overcome.
Hopes captured on vaccines soon stop the pandemic. But even if our best efforts win, coronavirus isolates will be left on our bodies and our population for a long time to come.
This research was published in Reproduction, here and here.