 Do you sit with your laptop on your lap or are you more of a desk person? I'm almost always at a desk working but sometimes I decide to work from my couch or bed and in those cases my laptop sits on my lap. I do worry though, could my laptop be killing my eggs? Maybe if you're a dude is it affecting your sperm? I really don't know. So of course I took my questions to some experts. The good news is that laptop use shouldn't have any negative impact on fertility. That's Dr. John Amory, an endocrinologist at the University of Washington Medical Center who specializes in male fertility. And Dr. Sarah Vaughn, an OBGYN and infertility fellow at Stanford, says the same thing about fertility for women. At this point there haven't been enough real definitive studies for us to recommend to patients against using laptops. Alright, so if this is the case why are we all so worried about these laptops? People's main concerns when it comes to laptops are external heat and radiation. Let's talk about heat first because that's real. Radiation isn't really a thing but we'll get into it. So women and men's bodies handle heat differently. Men's testicles are on the outside of the body because they're sensitive to temperature and require a cooler environment for sperm production. Dr. Michael Eisenberg, a urologist and professor at Stanford, explained to me how the heat a laptop produces could affect the male body. Testicles are outside the body because they need to be a little cooler than the rest of the body. So anything that warms them up can be an issue and laptops can certainly do that. He cited an older study that showed that laptops could raise the testicle temperature a centigrade but that was a long time ago and laptops have improved since then. Still, I generally tell men to kind of avoid it. Dr. Eisenberg isn't super worried about laptops and their effect on sperm but if someone struggles with fertility it might be worth eliminating even the smallest of risk factors. So it's unlikely that the laptop is going to be the whole story but again as we're kind of putting together a plan to sort of improve things it can be one component. Both he and Dr. Amory brought up an issue with hot tubs. They say that studies show that a man sitting in a 110 degree hot tub for 30 minutes will experience a decrease in their sperm count. The temperature affects their testicles and because sperm takes two to three months to make they might not see the results of this issue until months later. But Dr. Amory says that's extreme heat for a prolonged period. Your laptop doesn't get up to 110 degrees. Temperatures that you would achieve having a laptop even if it were close enough to your testicles and most laptops I'm padding my thighs but you know you mostly use a laptop if I'm at five. The amount of radiant heat that goes is delivered to the testicles is well below that dose. I would say missed. For women their ovaries which house their eggs are inside the body so that insulates them from external heat factors. They can sit in a hot tub and not worry about the state of their eggs. Although pregnant women should not sit in hot tubs. But the ovaries unlike the testicles are not external. They're very much internal. They're very much protected by the abdomen and the pelvis in a way that testicles are not. So I don't worry too much about the theoretical risk. It's certainly not something that I bring up with patients. Doctors even recommend that women use heating pads when they have cramps during their period so laptops heat won't negatively affect them. In fact maybe it could even help with cramps. Maybe. Because ovaries are just so protected and the heat you know that we use from heating pads has been used for a very long time. Again these recommendations change once a woman is pregnant. Dr. Vaughn notes that pregnant women shouldn't put direct heat over the baby which kind of seems like common sense but you know I gotta clarify I don't want any of you pregnant women putting heat on your baby so please do not do that. Okay so the heat from laptops won't affect women's eggs and probably won't really affect men's sperm. Although Dr. Eisenberg still says men should use a desk if they're extremely worried. But what about radiation? The amount of radiation that you could get from a laptop is really pretty minimal. It's probably about the same amount of radiation you would get flying across the country. That's right you're exposed to some radiation when you fly and you're a fine healthy human. Dr. Vaughn said something along the same lines. But my guess is that laptops emit radiation that's probably on the level of the radiation that you just get exposed to when you're in the world. She also said women are allowed to have x-rays even when they're pregnant so a laptop can't be worse than that. You're probably fine. Dr. Eisenberg though is always worried. I certainly talk to men about it sort of a theoretical risk and again as we're looking at kind of the whole picture it may contribute somewhat so I certainly if it's easy and they can do it it's probably better for the laptop to be on a desk rather than in the lab. He basically sees it as why risk it. We don't think men's sperm will be destroyed by a laptop on their lap but it's also not that hard to just use a desk really. What you really need to worry about are actual cum behaviors that affect sperm. There are other threats to male fertility that are much less esoteric than laptops. We know that you know drug use particularly opiates will decrease for production. You know marijuana is an issue for male fertility. You know alcoholism is not great for fertility. I'll probably keep using my laptop on my lap because my eggs are nice and safe tucked into my body. They're chilling. They're doing great but if you worry about your fertility or have experienced issues particularly if you're a man maybe invest in a comfortable reclining desk. It's like you're laying down but your laptop seat isn't directly on you. A regular desk works just fine too. Overall laptops don't appear to be an issue for fertility so go ahead be lazy in bed with your laptop. There are other threats to male fertility that are much less esoteric than laptops. We know that you know drug use particularly opiates will decrease for production. You know marijuana.