Coronavirus: Hubei government deletes report claiming Covid-19 could damage male fertility
- Men who have contracted the disease and recovered should seek medical advice regarding ‘theoretical’ risk to their reproductive health, Wuhan hospital says
- Article was widely shared on social media despite being pulled from provincial government’s website just hours after being uploaded
Men who had contracted the disease and recovered from it should seek medical advice on whether it might have had a detrimental impact on their fertility, said the piece, which was produced by a team from the reproductive medicine centre at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei.
While there was no evidence to suggest the infection could damage the male reproductive system, it was theoretically possible as the coronavirus was genetically similar to the one that caused Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome), it said.
The infection could result in “impairment of immune homeostasis in the testes”, which could cause orchitis – an inflammation of the testicles – which in turn could reduce a man’s sperm count and possibly lead to infertility, it said.
Both Covid-19 and Sars invade cells by combining with an enzyme called Ace2, which exists in large amounts in the testicles, as well as in other organs like the kidneys and heart.
Men who had contracted the disease should seek medical advice “so that problems can be detected and treated as early as possible”, it said.