Does prolonged continuous driving in men affect fertility?

In recent years, there has been an overall trend of declining semen quality in men, the causes of which are closely related to environmental degradation, changes in dietary patterns and poor living habits. Physical and chemical factors in the work environment can also affect sperm quality, and men’s fertility varies greatly with exposure to different occupational factors. Male drivers tend to have lower fertility and are more prone to infertility than men in other occupations. The processes of spermatogenesis, development, maturation and transportation all require suitable environmental temperatures. Therefore, during human evolution, the testes needed to go into the scrotum, where the temperature is lower than body temperature, to ensure proper sperm production. During driving, the average temperature in the scrotum is 2.2°C higher than during walking, which may be related to factors such as thermal radiation generated by the car engine work and the increase in temperature in the groin area due to sedentary behavior, thus interfering with the local temperature regulation function of the scrotum. When the ambient temperature is greater than 36 ℃, the lower the expression of cell proliferation and certain trophic factors in the testes, so the high temperature of the scrotum above 36 ℃ will directly damage the spermatogenesis process. If the testicles are locally heated for 30 minutes every day, the spermatogenesis process will be seriously affected in 15 to 20 days. Men often drive vehicles for a long time, especially in the high temperature of about 34 ℃ in the summer, in the car without air conditioning equipment in the environment, the surface temperature of the driver’s seat can be as high as 43 ~ 45 ℃, for a long time in such a high local temperature, it is inevitable that will affect the spermatogenesis. Some data show that male infertility patients, professional drivers accounted for 8.1%, this part of the male sperm concentration, vitality and normal sperm morphology rate than non-driver men, and sperm DNA integrity with the extension of the driving time will also be damaged to a certain extent. In addition to temperature factors, driving for a long time may also affect the quality of male semen through the following factors: maintaining a fixed sitting position for a long time makes the abdominal pressure increase, causing varicose veins, which in turn affects the sperm production; the space inside the car is narrow, the air does not circulate, is not conducive to the formaldehyde, benzene and other organic volatiles discharge; during the driving period of attention is highly concentrated, the body for a long time in a state of oxidative stress; long-term exposure to a large number of Automobile exhaust, containing a variety of pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and oil mist, carbon smoke and other solid particles. The interaction of these unfavorable factors may further aggravate the damage of male reproductive function. As men age, the body’s antioxidant capacity decreases, the self-protection mechanism is weakened, and the spermatogenesis process is more susceptible to the influence of external adverse factors. Therefore, men of advanced age with reproductive needs should always pay attention to self-protection and try to avoid prolonged continuous driving. If you need to drive a long distance, you should pay attention to maintain the appropriate temperature in the car, get off the car and rest appropriately to prevent the testicles from being in a high temperature state for a long time, and improve the awareness of self-fertility protection.