Evidence of testes damage from COVID-19 has been accumulating in a series of small autopsy studies, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 could have an impact on male fertility.

Researchers from the University of Miami in the US compared testis tissues from six men who died of COVID-19 and three who died of other causes.

Three of the COVID-19 patients had testis damage that would impair their ability to produce sperm, according to their report in the World Journal of Men’s Health.

“The possibility that COVID-19 damages the testes and impacts fertility … warrants gonadal function evaluation in men infected with COVID-19, or who have recovered from COVID-19, and desire fertility,” the team concluded.