RT | June 30, 2020
Covid-19 infection leads to drastic reduction in the quality of sperm and can make men infertile, the Russian Health Ministry said citing recent data.
“Today, the problems of infertility, especially male infertility, associated with Covid-19 are revealing themselves on a grander scale,” Elena Uvarova, the Russian Health Ministry’s chief gynecologist for children and youths, told journalists at a press conference in Moscow. The data gathered by Russian medics has shown a “38 percent reduction in quality of sperm” in men who recovered from the coronavirus, she said. It was a worrying discovery, as the overall quality of the sperm in Russian men already wasn’t perfect, the doctor added.
Researchers have been debating the potential impact of Covid-19 on male fertility since the pandemic began in China’s Wuhan in December. Some studies said that the virus affected the male reproductive system, while others discovered no abnormalities. A Chinese-US study in early June warned that the coronavirus could damage testicles without infecting them. It attacked and enlarged sperm-producing cells to the extent that production of semen was affected.