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Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

nytimes.com

591–600 of 640 posts

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not malleable enough for conversion therapy to work.

To my mind, that's a little like saying "Wow, it sure is shocking how forcible rape fails to get people all hot and bothered and learn to love sex." Conversion therapy is the opposite of someone deciding "Hmmmm. You know, I never thought about it before but now that I am in some new circumstance with people with different traits, I'm finding myself weirdly attracted to categories of people that never did a thing for…

Not all conversion therapy is forced on people. I suspect the vast majority is voluntary.

I also would not be surprised if it increases, rather than diminishes, homosexuality. Interventions can have counter-intuitive effects.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my mind, that's a little like saying "Wow, it sure is shocking how forcible rape fails to get people all hot and bothered and learn to love sex." Conversion therapy is the opposite of someone deciding "Hmmmm. You know, I never thought about it before but now that I am in some new circumstance with people with different traits, I'm finding myself weirdly attracted to categories of people that never did a thing for…

Not all conversion therapy is forced on people. I suspect the vast majority is voluntary. I also would not be surprised if it increases, rather than diminishes, homosexuality. Interventions can have counter-intuitive effects.

I suspect the vast majority is voluntary.

I find that a questionable assertion.

A lot of therapy is pursued because someone is being given the message by a great many people around them "You are broken and you need to go get yourself fixed" in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

It's really rather hard to achieve a mental state of "I am going to therapy because I choose it for my benefit because I want this." A lot of people are there because the entire world likes to blame individuals as being somehow at fault for their lives not working rather than having compassion for the myriad ways in which the world likes to crap on all kinds of people for the crime of existing.

I've done it. I went to therapy for me. But even then it was an act of defiance and some of the people closest to me were assholes acting like "It's about damn time you went and got fixed, bitch!" rather than going "Glad you are at a place where you feel comfortable confronting your personal demons from other people doing really amazingly shitty things to you, like raping you when you were just twelve years old."

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#593
post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My life experiences have nothing to do with ignorant generalizations or what you think is impossible. You can either accept what I describe with benefit of the doubt, or you can be a prick trying to moralize, judge, and castigate from the comfort of the armchair quarterback chair. It's your choice.

Our maybe you reacted to breasts and ignored mental maturity. And yes, I have experience with 12 years old. Their beats size is unrelated to their brain maturity and you absolutely can tell them apart from 19 years old.

You haven't met every 12-year-old. I have a daughter that fit his description, both body and mind, except she wasn't seeking a boyfriend. At 12 she was taking college classes, getting only "A" grades. Nobody suspected a thing. All her friends were much older than her, and they all assumed she was much older. This was without make-up even. Her behavior is more adult-like than that of a typical adult. She gets annoyed by the childish behavior she sees in many adults.

You might even know somebody like this. Unless you demand a photo ID to verify the age of everybody you meet, you just can't be sure.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#594

I don't have any data but I wonder if stuff like this will affect the gene pool. If the cause is environmental then it shouldnt have an affect. But genes are weird considering epigenetics. Almost like the the movie 'Children of men'

If the cause is environmental then that means the environment changed, and environmental change causes a change in selection.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#595
post #484

As someone who has had to do IVF for our child and go through the challenge of figuring our what to do to try and improve sperm quality, I can tell you once you start looking into it, basically everything about modern life is bad for sperm. Heat, radiation, plastic, micro plastics, soya, tap water, Teflon, antibacterial soap, underpants, western diet. It’s a perfect storm. If you’re going though it though I offer a r…

To the many people arguing about mobile phone radiation - just move your phone to your back pocket & move on with your life. Your body will act as a shield. Will it matter? Maybe. Maybe not. Now go think about something else. If you need something else to think about: non-antibacterial soap is better anyway, and a RO filter is less than $200. Ok, NOW go do something else.

Good luck doing that anywhere outside the 1st world and still having a phone after the first hour.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is "we". Almost all people I know will make selfish decisions that harm others for their own advantage. It seems to be simply human nature.

> It seems to be simply nature. FTFY. It's all about survival. Humans are animals not much different than a deer, lion or whatever. A deer will run away from something it doesn't know where a lion will attack/kill anything it doesn't know. Just like the stereotypical "git off my land" character of a country bumpkin. I mean, how do you feel when you see a stranger walking on your property? Same thing. I always laugh w…

Excellent comment! You are completely right and illustrated your points with hilarious accuracy.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#597
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP but I do this by avoiding processed foods, making everything "from scratch". Examples: - Pizza sauce from crushed tomatoes, tomato puré and spices. - Marinade for marinating meat from spices and olive oil and either balsamic vinegar or lime. - Pick my own blueberries that I freeze and put in plain yoghurt.

Word of caution: most food cans are lined with BPA. Try to avoid canned food products and make the puree yourself if possible.

Thanks for the advice! I buy the puré in glass jars.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure you should specifically be worried about vinyl shower curtains, but vinyl is a specific concern, because to get the form of vinyl that's soft and pliable, the vinyl is mixed about 50/50 with phthalates that are known endocrine disruptors. That said, phthalates are used in tons of stuff, and it's not fully clear to me which sources are the most important. I've replaced my soap/shampoo/shaving creams with…

> I've replaced my soap/shampoo/shaving creams with phthalate free versions How do you identify these? You mean there are products that advertise themselves to be phtalate free? Or that you are actively looking for phtalate composition in the products you buy?

I search https://www.ewg.org/ to get non-toxic products
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