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REGULAR USE OF HOT TUBS MAY REDUCE FERTILITY IN MEN
If you are hoping to have a family, you may want to reduce your hot
tub activity in order to ensure your fertility. However, this problem
can be reversible.
For years, doctors have warned men having trouble conceiving to stay away from
hot baths and whirlpool tubs, saying there was reason to suspect that long exposure
to hot water could worsen their problems.
Much of that was based on speculation. But earlier this year, a team of urologists
conducted a study to measure and document the extent, if any, of this effect.
The researchers did confirm the link, and then they discovered something surprising.
The study looked at a group of men who were regularly exposed to high water temperatures,
meaning for about 30 minutes a week, through hot tubs or hot baths.
All the men showed signs of infertility, with impaired sperm production and motility.
What was unexpected was how quickly this infertility could be reversed. The researchers
found that after the men stopped their exposure to wet heat, half had “a
mean increase in total motile sperm counts of 491 percent after three to six
months.”
Among the men who did not see such a reversal, the researchers speculated that
tobacco use was to blame since most of those men were chronic smokers.
So although this can be reversed, if you are in the process of trying to conceive,
you may want to hold off on the hot water and find other forms of relaxation.
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