Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have shown for the first time that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can remain in the sperm of patients for up to 90 days after hospital discharge and up to 110 days after the initial infection, reducing semen quality. The study is reported in an article published in the journal Andrology . The authors suggest that people who plan to have children should observe a period of "quarantine" after recovering from COVID-19.
More than four years after the start of the pandemic, we know SARS-CoV-2 is able to invade and destroy several types of human cells and tissue, including the reproductive system, where the testicles serve as a "gateway." Although scientists have noted that the virus is more aggressive than other viruses toward the male genital tract, and autopsies have found it in testicles, it has rarely been detected in semen by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis, which focuses on viral DNA. To fill this knowledge gap, the study used real-time PCR and transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) to detect viral RNA in semen and spermatozoa donated by men who were convalescing from COVID-19.
The semen samples were taken from 13 patients aged between 21 and 50 who had had mild, moderate and severe COVID-19 and had been admitted to Hospital das Clínicas (HC), the hospital complex run by the university's medical school (FM-USP). The analysis was conducted up to 90 days after discharge and 110 days after di.
