The use of disposable diapers may explain the increase in male infertility over the past 25 years, suggest studies reported in the Archives of Disease in Childhood .
Temperature is critical to normal testicular development and sperm health.
The research teams monitored the scrotal temperature of 48 healthy boys and men, including five premature babies, from birth up to the age of 42 years, using a tiny thermal probe. The study ranged over two 24-hour periods. The highest temperatures were recorded in the youngest babies. Rectal temperatures were significantly lower than scrotal temperatures when the children wore disposable diapers, but were the same when cotton diapers were worn. This, say the authors, shows that the insulation properties of the disposable diapers impaired normal testicular cooling mechanisms.