My Laptop is Birth Control?

Every once in a while I run across some information that I find intriguing.  Even less often, I find something useful, but today is not one of those days.  If you haven’t guessed it, I am a geek… and geeks love computers.  Given that there are 13 of them running in my house at any given time I would say that I qualify as a habitual offender.  I find more often now that I use my laptop more than any of the other machines in my house out of brutal convenience though; what I didn’t realize is that it has an added bonus.

There has been news lately circulating that my laptop is actually a form of birth control!  Just to let you know though, this isn’t new news; a study in 2004 by Human Reproduction published findings that the temperature increase a laptop causes to the scrotum damages sperm.  A recent study by the journal Fertility and Sterility has brought light to the dark region once again.

Researchers hooked up thermometers to the scrotums of almost 30 young men, sitting in the common position with their laptop and found that the scrotum needs some additional cooling.  Within 10 to 15 minutes of common usage the scrotum rose to temperatures that are considered unsafe for your little swimmers.

The exact effects are still unknown but researchers universally agree that even a change of one degree Celsius can cause considerable damage to sperm.  This study found that after one hour of normal laptop usage (on your LAP – as intended by the name laptop) had caused the testicles to rise more than two degrees Celsius.

“It doesn’t matter what pad you use,” said Sheynkin, a researcher. “You can put a pillow beneath your computer and it still won’t protect you.”

With this new study, I am waiting for a new line of cooling product from manufactures aimed at cooling my scrotum.