{"id":4261,"date":"2012-11-10T20:28:58","date_gmt":"2012-11-11T03:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=4261"},"modified":"2015-03-11T17:41:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T00:41:14","slug":"couple-who-couldnt-conceive-stunned-when-doctors-revealed-husbands-laptop-was-cooking-his-sperm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=4261","title":{"rendered":"Couple who couldn’t conceive stunned when doctors revealed husband’s LAPTOP was cooking his sperm"},"content":{"rendered":"

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER<\/a><\/p>\n

PUBLISHED:<\/strong> 13:17 GMT, 5 November 2012 | UPDATED:<\/strong> 14:59 GMT, 5 November 2012<\/p>\n

A couple who struggled to have a baby were stunned when doctors said their laptop was to blame.<\/p>\n

Scott Reed was told having the appliance on his lap had caused heat damage to his sperm.<\/p>\n

And, as a result, the 30-year-old electrician and his wife, Laura, also 30, were finding it harder to conceive.<\/p>\n

Mr Reed started using his laptop on a table instead and three months later Mrs Reed became pregnant with baby daughter Taryn.<\/p>\n

Scott and his wife Laura were delighted when they have baby Taryn after discovering a hot laptop could be stopping them from conceiving<\/p>\n

Mrs Reed said: ‘I’ve never heard of this happening before, when the doctors told us it was a real shock.<\/p>\n

‘Scott would use his laptop in the evenings for a couple of hours on and off while we were watching television.<\/p>\n

‘He would use it for work and general things like Facebook. We had absolutely no idea the damage it was causing him.’<\/p>\n

The couple, from Clanfield in Hampshire, visited their GP after trying for a baby for six months without success.<\/p>\n

Initially it was thought Mr Reed’s fertility had been affected by mumps – which he had suffered with at the age of 21.<\/p>\n

Mrs Reed, a pathologist, said: ‘About six months after we started trying I was getting frustrated and mentioned it to my doctor.<\/p>\n

‘You don’t think it will be that hard to get pregnant. We both went back to have a chat and the doctor put Scott forward for a fertility test.’<\/p>\n

Taryn Reed, 11 months<\/p>\n

In October 2010 the couple were referred to the andrology department of the pathology unit at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.<\/p>\n

Mr Reed said: ‘Because I had the mumps I needed to get tested. We were concerned they would find something but then we wanted a baby so we had to find out.<\/p>\n

‘I didn’t think about the worst-case scenario and just had to get on with it.’<\/p>\n

Tests revealed Mr Reed was producing a healthy amount of sperm but they had suffered heat damage.<\/p>\n

Under the microscope it was possible to see that the tail of the sperm had coiled around the head, meaning it couldn’t swim quickly to the egg.<\/p>\n

The problem is common in chefs – who work in hot environments – but can also be caused by laptop computers.<\/p>\n

Mr Reed said: ‘I never thought using a laptop would affect the quality of my sperm. After asking if I was a chef, the next thing was ‘do you use a laptop?’<\/p>\n

‘I was using it daily and hadn’t given it a second thought. It was quite shocking really.’<\/p>\n

After that Mr Reed made sure he placed his laptop either beside him or on a table.<\/p>\n

Mrs Reed said: ‘We carried on trying and we weren’t having any luck. We thought it wasn’t going to happen so we started planning a trip to travel around Thailand. But then I did a test and found out I was expecting.’<\/p>\n

Taryn, now 10 months, was born on December 8 last year.<\/p>\n

Proud parent Mr Reed is now encouraging more men to be aware of the dangers of laptops – and not to be shy if they think there might be a problem with fertility.<\/p>\n

He said: ‘Generally men clam up and don’t want to talk about anything to do with genitals. Don’t be scared of going through the process. I wanted children and so I got tested.’<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Scott had been using his computer on his lap for a few hours each evening. Doctors said it caused his sperm to coil up, making it difficult for them to swim<\/p>\n

Biomedical andrologist Sue Kenworthy, from Queen Alexandra Hospital, confirmed the heat of the laptop can have an effect on sperm.<\/p>\n

She said: ‘Scott had been producing a healthy amount of sperm but looking under a microscope I saw that there was heat damage.<\/p>\n

‘Scott was using his laptop every day and for a few hours. It would get really hot, which would have an effect on his sperm.<\/p>\n

‘This showed up under the microscope. The tail of the sperm had coiled around the head.<\/p>\n

‘This means it can’t swim quickly and get to the egg. I would say men should place the laptop on a table, rather than on their lap, as this can make a difference.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER PUBLISHED: 13:17 GMT, 5 November 2012 | UPDATED: 14:59 GMT, 5 November 2012 A couple who struggled to have a baby were stunned when doctors said their laptop was to blame. Scott Reed was told having the appliance on his lap had caused heat damage to his sperm. And, as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242,184,154,251,246,7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-damaged-sperm","category-ipad","category-laptop","category-sperm","category-tablets","category-wifi","category-wireless_devices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4261"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5510,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261\/revisions\/5510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}