Report: Laptop Use Hurts Mojo; Cooling Pads Don't Help

All potential Dads out there be warned: a new study has found that using a laptop as it was intended to be used -- on your lap -- can hurt your mojo. Worse yet, not even laptop pads drastically reduce, or even reverse the effect.

The study comes courtesy of urologist Yelim Sheynkin of State University of New York at Stony Brook. His subsequent report has been published in a recent medical journal.

Sheynkin and his researchers used thermometers to measure twenty-nine male participants, each of whom was tasked with balancing a notebook PC on their laps. Sheynkin and his team found that it didn't take long for the areas to overheat to a point where productivity would be affected, and even when laptop pads were employed the difference was negligible.

10-15 Minutes Is All It Takes

Sheynkin believes that this issue is a serious one, and with more and more laptops being sold all the time, it's not a problem that's about to go away.

"Millions and millions of men are using laptops now, especially those in the reproductive age range," Sheykin said. (Source: reuters.com)

Even more concerning: most men don't realize how little time it takes for a hot laptop to affect the area. For specific production levels to be sustained, the area needs to be kept cool. But when a hot laptop is applied, it changes everything.

"Within 10 or 15 [minutes, the] temperature is already above what we consider safe, but [the men] don't feel it." (Source: pcmag.com)

The inability to conceive is a nation-wide issue. Approximately one in every six couples experience difficulty, and in about half these cases blame falls on the male.

But lap-laptop use can't be considered a primary contributor -- unless a particularly hot notebook PC is used regularly in that position. "I wouldn't say that if someone starts to use laptops they will become [unproductive]," Sheynkin said, before adding that consistent overheating could cause problems because "the [affected area] doesn't have time to cool down."

New Positions Don't Help

There aren't many solutions outside of using a table or desk in place of the lap. Even when participants were instructed to extend their legs wide apart so as to limit the amount of concentrated heat, it took only about 30 minutes for the affected area to reach a worrisome heat level.

"No matter what you do, even with the legs spread wide apart, the temperature is still going to be higher than what we call safe," noted Sheynkin.