Effects of Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Field (RF-EMF) exposure on male fertility and pregnancy and birth outcomes: Protocols for a systematic review of experimental studies in non-human mammals and in human sperm exposed in vitro.

AI: Melanie Research RF Safe Research Library Jan 1, 2021 NEUTRAL HIGH

This paper presents protocols for a systematic review of experimental studies assessing RF-EMF exposure (100 kHz–300 GHz) and outcomes related to male fertility and pregnancy/birth effects. The review will cover three evidence streams: non-human mammal male reproductive outcomes, human sperm exposed in vitro, and in utero exposure effects in experimental mammals. The authors highlight inconsistencies and dosimetric flaws in the existing literature and propose risk-of-bias assessment (NTP/OHAT with SYRCLE input), potential meta-analysis, and GRADE certainty ratings.

Key points

This is a protocol for a systematic review of experimental RF-EMF studies rather than a report of findings.
The planned review includes RF-EMF frequencies from 100 kHz to 300 GHz.
Three evidence streams are planned: animal male reproductive system, in vitro human sperm, and in utero animal exposure with pregnancy/birth outcomes.
The authors cite inconsistent results and dosimetric flaws in prior experiments as a key motivation for the review.
Searches are planned in PubMed, Scopus, and EMF Portal, plus manual reference checking, with no language or year restrictions.
Risk of bias will be assessed using an NTP/OHAT tool with input from SYRCLE, and certainty will be evaluated using GRADE.
Meta-analysis is planned if sufficient comparable data are available; otherwise narrative synthesis will be used.
The work is financially supported by the World Health Organization and registered in OSF and PROSPERO.

Referenced studies & papers

Relevant papers in OpenMel

Source: Open original

AI-generated summaries may be incomplete or incorrect. This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice.

Comments

No comments yet.