European researchers have found that persons who got infected with the coronavirus that causes Covid 19 took more than the normal 78 days to produce sperm cells. Specifically, they found that a Covid 19 infection can lower the number of sperms and prevent sperms from swimming for at least three months, according to WebMD report from the findings presented on Monday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The lead researcher Professor Rocio Nez-Calonge, said they are unable to estimate how long it might take for the quality of the sperm to be restored, and Covid 19 may have caused damage that lasts a lifetime, even in men who only had a mild infection.
The Spanish researcher said he was further disappointed because they assumed that the quality of semen would improve once new sperm were generated, but this was not the case.
The specialists analysed semen tests gathered from 45 men in Spain before and after they had the Coronavirus infection. The typical age of the men was 31 years of age.
The study titled, “Men experience a long-term drop in semen quality after COVID infection — even if the infection was mild”, found that post-Covid sperm volume decreased by 20%, sperm concentration decreased by nearly 27%, sperm count decreased by nearly 38%, and the number of live sperm decreased by 5% when compared to samples taken prior to the infection.
The cheery news, nevertheless, is that the post-Covid semen quality is within the range considered normal to enable a man father a child, according to an expert in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Lisbon Medical School in Portugal who wasn’t involved in the study, Professor Carlos Calhaz-Jorge, MD, PhD.
