According to E! online, Nicole Kidman’s baby may be a miracle baby, the result of swimming in the “fertility waters” of Australia. No, really.
Kidman is quoted in the article as saying that she never thought she’d have a child on her own. She has two adopted children, and she suffered a miscarriage several years back. She also happens to be in her early 40s, which is a time when getting pregnant is more difficult. (Read more about getting pregnant after age 35 here.) Yet, just this past July, her "fertility water" daughter, named Sunday Rose, was born.
While filming the upcoming movie Australia, Kidman and several other females from the film swam in the Kununurra waters of the Australian outback. Kidman plus six other women all got pregnant after swimming in what they now call the “fertility waters”.
I had three reactions to this news article.
- How many days will it take for a friend or family member to (seriously) suggest that I get myself a ticket to Australia?
- This is the silliest thing I have ever heard.
- I wonder how much a ticket to Australia costs?
What do you think? Think there just might be something in the water? Think it’s crazy? (But would you try it anyway, if you could?)
Vote in the poll, or leave a comment below to share your thoughts.
You may have heard about the potential link between cell phone use and lowered sperm counts. In a research study published in Fertility and Sterility in January 2008, researchers found a link between the number of hours a man reported using a cell phone and the quality of his sperm.
In that study, those who reported using their cell phones for several hours a day had an increased risk of poorer sperm quality, including lower sperm counts, lower sperm viability (percentage of living sperm), and poorer morphology (the shape of the sperm.)
Why cell phone use might be connected to poorer sperm quality was a question, though. Could it be the heat from the cell phone? Could it be from the stress in the lives of those who happen to use their cell phone more?
Well, those same researchers decided to look further into the matter. What they discovered was quite surprising.
In this new pilot study, they took semen from men with fertility problems, and from men without fertility problems. They took these samples and separated them into two groups. For the test group, they placed the semen in close proximity to a cell phone in talk mode for one hour. The semen in the control group was not exposed to the cell phone, but otherwise was under the same conditions (ie, same room temperature, etc.).
The idea was to recreate in the lab a situation where a man’s cell phone is in his pocket in talk mode, while he uses an ear piece for conversation. They used 850 MHz frequency cell phones, to be consistent with the average frequency used in most cell phones.
They discovered that the sperm that was exposed to the cell phone in talk mode had decreased motility (sperm movement) and decreased viability (percentage of living sperm.) The exposed semen samples also contained higher levels of damaging free radicals.
More research is needed to see if placing the phone further away will make a difference (in this study, the cell phone was 2 centimeters away, about the distance a cell phone might be when inside a man’s pocket.) Also, the study didn’t look at whether a cell phone that is not in active talk mode makes a difference or not.
Still, the results are surprising, and in my opinion, concerning. What do you think? Will this study affect how you or your partner use a cell phone? Take the poll above and let us know your thoughts!
Sources:
Agarwal A, Deepinder F, Sharma RK, Ranga G, Li J. Effect of cell phone usage on semen analysis in men attending infertility clinic: an observational study. Fertility and Sterility. 2008 Jan;89(1):124-8. Epub 2007 May 4.
Agarwal A, Desai NR, Makker K, Varghese A, Mourad R, Sabanegh E, Sharma R. Effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic waves (RF-EMW) from cellular phones on human ejaculated semen: an in vitro pilot study. Fertility and Sterility. 22 September 2008 (10.1016/j.fertnstert.2008.08.022)
