Wireless communication devices and their networks are an essential part of our civilisation. This now ubiquitous technology has produced a new and persistent presence of radiofrequency and millimetre wave electromagnetic energy in our environment. With ever-accelerating public uptake and technological developments driving wider coverage and faster, more reliable data transmission, community concern about the safety of these devices and networks continues to rise. The research field has identified that the non-ionising energies utilised by wireless communications are not necessarily inert to living organisms, however the biological interactions and potential health implications are still unclear and under robust debate. Indeed, progress toward ruling out significant health risks remains slow and therefore, the public demand for a definitive health risk assessment of these technologies continues to go unmet. We have confirmed that spermatozoa are negatively affected by environmentally relevant electromagnetic fields, and that their distinctive cell biology, provides a unique sensitivity from which we can dissect out the molecular targets and the downstream perturbations of communication fields on biology. Building on our previous work in which we have implicated an oxidative stress cascade initiated by the sperm mitochondria, we have now identified that protein cysteine hyper-oxidation, may be a key mediator precipitating damage and loss of sperm function, including motility losses, that we commonly observe after irradiations. These functional losses including elevated DNA damage, are eliminated by buffering the cell against cysteine hyper-oxidation through supplementation of thiol-based antioxidants such as penicillamine. These insights into sperm thiol dysregulation, offers a clear target of focus for advancing a coveted mechanism of action, and on the backdrop of the recent global decline in human semen parameters that may stem from new prominent factors in our environment, provides a potential intervention strategy that could contribute to combatting waning semen profiles and male fertility.