Working on a laptop wirelessly may hamper a man’s chances of fatherhood.

In a study, sperm placed under a laptop connected to the internet through wi-fi suffered more damage than that kept at the same temperature but away from the wireless signal.

The finding is important because previous worries about laptops causing infertility have focused on the heat generated by the machines.

In the latest study, researchers took sperm from 29 men aged 26 to 45 and placed them either under a wi-fi connected laptop or away from the computer.

The laptop then uploaded and downloaded information from the internet for four hours.

At the end of the experiment, 25 percent of the sperm under the laptop had stopped moving and 9 percent showed DNA damage.

By comparison, just 14 percent of samples kept away from the wi-fi stopped moving. And just 3 percent suffered DNA damage, the journal Fertility and Sterility reports.

The wireless connection creates electromagnetic radiation that damages semen, the scientists, from the United States and Argentina, believe.

Lead researcher Conrado Avendano, of Nascentis Medicina Reproductiva in Cordoba, said: ‘Our data suggest that the use of a laptop computer wirelessly connected to the internet and positioned near the male reproductive organs may decrease human sperm quality.

‘At present we do not know whether this effect is induced by all laptop computers connected by WiFi to the internet or what use conditions heighten this effect.’

A separate test with a laptop that was on, but not wirelessly connected, found negligible EM radiation from the machine alone.

According to the American Urological Association, nearly one in six couples in the US have trouble conceiving a baby, and about half the time the man is at the root of the problem.

While the impact of modern technology is still murky, lifestyle does matter, researchers say.

Earlier this month, a report in Fertility And Sterility showed that men who eat a diet rich in fruit and grains and low in red meat, alcohol and coffee have a better shot at getting their partner pregnant during fertility treatment.

(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)