Register for Disposable Diapers May Explain Increase
Male InfertilityOctober 16-23, 2000
(NewsRx.com) -- The use of disposable diapers may explain the increase in male infertility over the past 25 years, suggest studies reported in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Diapers lined with plastic significantly increase the temperature of the scrotum - the testicular sac - in boys, the research shows. Temperature is critical to normal testicular development and sperm health.
The research teams monitored the scrotal temperature of 48 healthy boys and men, including five premature babies, from birth up to the age of 42 years, using a tiny thermal probe. The study ranged over two 24-hour periods. During one, baby boys wore re-usable cotton diapers; during the other, they wore plastic-lined disposable diapers. Temperature was measured during waking and sleeping hours; and rectal temperature was also measured for comparison.
Temperature was consistently and significantly higher - up to 1°C above body temperature - when the disposable diapers were worn. The highest temperatures were recorded in the youngest babies. Rectal temperatures were significantly lower than scrotal temperatures when the children wore disposable diapers, but were the same when cotton diapers were worn.
This, say the authors, shows that the insulation properties of the disposable diapers impaired normal testicular cooling mechanisms. In 13 boys, the cooling mechanism failed altogether.
In adults, the evidence shows that exposure to high temperatures, for example during episodes of fever or while in a sauna, can reduce sperm count, and has been used as a form of contraception in men. The subsequent risk of adult infertility in boys whose testicles fail to descend at the normal age is thought to be attributable to increased testicular temperature.
A prolonged increase in scrotal temperature in early childhood may therefore have an important role in subsequent testicular health and function, with implications for male fertility, say the authors ("Scrotal temperature is increased in disposable plastic lined nappies," Arch Dis Child, 2000;83:364-8; "How vulnerable is the developing testis to the external environment", Arch Dis Child, 2000;83:281-2).
For more information, contact either Professor Wolfgang Sippell, Department of Pediatrics, University of Kiel, Germany (e-mail: sippell@pediatrics.uni-kiel.de); or Professor Hughes, Department of Pediatrics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge; e-mail: iah100@cam.ac.uk.
This article was prepared by Health & Medicine Week editors from staff and other reports.
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