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A family member warned me not to use heated car seats, since they cause infertility and cancer in both men and women.

I searched the internet for a source for his claims and I found this Telegraph article from 2008 claiming might reduce fertility in men:

Heated car seats could reduce male fertility, say scientists

Men who use heated car seats could be unwittingly putting their fertility at risk, new research suggests.

Is this a correct interpretation of their source? Has any other research been conducted that confirms or refutes this?

Oddthinking
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Belle
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    Regarding the article - there is a big difference between "reducing fertility" and "Causing infertility" - the two are simply not the same thing at all. – Norm Apr 06 '18 at 21:35
  • @Norm: I edited the question to match the claim. – Oddthinking Apr 07 '18 at 01:11
  • Note that the claim is very soft - it says it *could be* enough, in theory, not that the effect was measured in practice. – Oddthinking Apr 07 '18 at 01:12
  • Surely it depends on how hot :) – Sklivvz Apr 07 '18 at 03:35
  • @Sklivvz: Living in a climate where seat belts buckles can burn, I've had limited experience with heated car seats, but the ones I have seen have only had an on/off setting and a preset thermostat. Do they vary much in temperature? – Oddthinking Apr 07 '18 at 06:41
  • @Oddthinking It was a joke... – Sklivvz Apr 07 '18 at 06:53
  • @Oddthinking mine does. It has settings 0-4. 1 stops it from being freezing cold in winter. Thanks for the edit by the way. – Belle Apr 07 '18 at 07:53
  • Possibly related: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3793/can-switching-from-briefs-to-boxer-shorts-improve-your-fertility/4093#4093 – DJohnM Apr 07 '18 at 19:05

1 Answers1

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The Telegraph article may be correct.

There was a study that showed that sitting on a heated car seat increases scrotal temperatures by about 0.5°C. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17919605

It is known that 'raised testicular temperature has a detrimental effect on mammalian spermatogenesis and the resultant spermatozoa' https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25456164

For optimal spermatogenesis to occur, testicular temperatures need to be maintained 2–4°C lower than core body temperature. http://www.rbmojournal.com/article/S1472-6483(14)00545-8/fulltext

So if somebody's scrotal temperature is an optimal 4°C below core then raising it by 0.5°C (by using a car seat warmer) probably won't affect fertility significantly. But since googled pictures of 'scrotal thermometer' do not inspire confidence in everyday use it is best to go along with a common sense advice to limit heated seat use to a minimum.

T.Monk
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