New and ever more unpleasant side effects of getting the Zika virus just seem to keep popping up every time the news begins to die down. It started out as a fairly benign disease, with most people not even experiencing the mild flu-like symptoms. Then we discovered it caused birth defects in infected pregnant women’s unborn babies. Next, we found out it can also cause serious brain problems in humans. Now, the Zika virus has simply gone too far this time, aiming below the belt and endangering a man’s very virility!
According to new research, the Zika virus has now been discovered shrinking men’s testicles and lowering their testosterone levels. Ok, so technically this has only happened to male mice so far, but I’d be very careful to not get this virus if I was a human man after learning about this. Who would want to dare risk the chances of it happening to you? Scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine began a study to see how the Zika virus affected infected male mice in order to hopefully discover things like this that might also happen to human men. After three weeks of being infected with the Zika virus, the researchers found that the male mice’s testicles had shrunk to a tenth of their normal size. That should strike terror into the heart of every man on this planet. The researchers also found that the virus destroys the internal structure of the testes because it will remain in them for months following infection. Some of the mice had their sperm count drop by 100 percent, making them infertile. If nothing else, this definitely suggests that men could face low sperm counts and testosterone levels, which will affect their fertility, after being infected with the Zika virus. You definitely want to practice safe sex with this nasty virus around.
What kind of negative sexual and fertility effects could the Zika virus possibly have on women?
