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Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#291

Post by ghiculescu »

aspyct wrote: post #164
bhouston wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the potential impact of the increased difficulty in having children is. Less people in the world. Look at Japan and South Korean population projections out 50 to 75 years -- they may cut their populations in half, and it could keep going? Hard to extrapolate trends out that far though...

Sorry, but isn't that a good thing? Putting aside the fact that we're (at least in Europe) paying for a pension fund we'll never have, isn't reducing the amount of people on earth the right solution for basically all problems long term?

If there are less kids, the ability to pay for your pension fund in 40 years time will be much much harder than it is today. So barring other fundamental changes, more kids will help.

Most other problems on earth will be solved by more technology.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#292

Post by addingadimensio »

standardUser wrote: post #89
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #34

> Swan also recommends reducing exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals by being a savvy consumer Most hygiene products get away with listing diethyl phthalate as 'Parfum'. What we need is not savvy consumers what we need is regulators to get serious.

I get reliably downvoted for suggesting this, but we need vastly better labelling across the board. We give companies a lot of leeway when it comes to selling things to put in and on our bodies without us, owners of said bodies, having any way of finding out what the hell is in their products, or where they came from, or how they were processed. It absolutely baffles me how everyone doesn't want considerably more inf…

[flagged]

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#293

Post by shawnz »

whalesalad wrote: post #236
shawnz wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I strongly suspect BPA-free plastics have similar endocrine effects Based on what? BPA is the monomer which makes up polycarbonate plastic, and it's a simple molecule which has been known to be an estrogen analogue for nearly 100 years. Other kinds of plastics besides polycarbonate are made from much different kinds of monomers which have no structural similarity to BPA, so why should we assume that the risk carrie…

BPA was banned, so they tweaked it into BPB, BPS, BPF, and BPAF, etc... it's a game of whack-a-mole. They're all terrible for us.

Sure, but most plastics aren't made with any kind of bisphenol related compounds at all.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#294

Post by AdrianB1 »

bvhvhfcgxfdf wrote: post #81

I wonder how much of it has to do with COVID. It's been well known even asymptotic COVID cases can harm mens' reproductive health.

Most probably nothing to with Covid as the measurements started 40 years ago and the decrease was present all these years.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#295

Post by jvanderbot »

gitfan86 wrote: post #187
kneebonian wrote: post #39

It is interesting, I have a friend group that consists of about 5 married couples all of whom have been having issues conceiving and have been trying for a while now, but are still having issues. Curiously enough my wife and I just had our 4th and every time we've conceived within two months (even when I was hoping it would take a little longer). From what I hear our friends story is not unusual and many in our age b…

In my experience it was a stress issue for the couples that were having trouble that I know. One friend and his wife gave up alcohol, caffeine and meat, it seemed like there was just a ton of stress they had put on getting pregnant for 6 months. It wasn't until after they took a break from trying that they got pregnant one night after drinking. I think modern medicine somewhat ignores how powerful the human mind is.…

Well, that or all the endocrine disruptors just made it take forever.

Probably just took them a long time and they happened to conceive after making those changes.

Certainly they tried many methods over time, and with a low% chance per attempt, they'll conceive after a bunch of 'interventions'.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#296

Post by francisofascii »

Arete314159 wrote: post #121
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its the same with obesity, which has been sharply increasing in much of the world since the 1970s, but pretty much all the conventional explanations (increased availability, excess sugar, excess carbs, excess fat, decreased physical activity, etc.) don't seem to stand up to scrutiny. Hypothesis: the cause in both cases is likely industrial contaminants considered essential to the running of modern civilization, so no…

I read an interesting study on this. It showed that obesity rates were lower in places like Colorado, and theorized that the reason was that they were at the headwaters of their water source, so there was less opportunity for contaminants to enter their water.

That is interesting, but probably the reason is the highly active/outdoor culture of Colorado leads to lower obesity rates and people who are less obese move to Colorado.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#297

Post by wintermutestwin »

PakG1 wrote: post #156

My wife and I have a beautiful daughter about to turn 2. But she wouldn't have existed if it weren't for IVF (in vitro fertilization). Had to stab her stomach with needles for a while to make hormones to mass produce eggs and then they took my sperm to put into her eggs and see which ones took. Five viable pairings happened. Three were put into her and out came the one kid. Other two are in cryo for future use, and h…

A long time ago, my spouse and I moved to Massachusetts because they mandated that Insurance companies must cover IVF. I got a job at a small startup, but just as we were getting started with IVF, they got acquired by a California megacorp. I thought I'd have to quit, but it turned out that the acquiring company's insurance covered IVF.

Back then, IVF Drs. were measured on their success rate so they wanted to put in three blastocysts (fertilized eggs). With fears of triplets in my head, I talked my spouse down to two. My twins are adults now and totally awesome :~)

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#298

Post by seydor »

unbalancedevh wrote: post #289
seydor wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it can't really be genetic

From TFA: "But the transmission of these exposures doesn’t stop there—the epigenetic effects of these exposures may be transmitted from one generation to the next, not just from the mother but possibly from the father too. It may be due to factors in the father’s sperm that disrupt the reproductive development of male fetuses in the womb, Levine notes."

This assumes there are children

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#299

Post by jaywalk »

compiskey wrote: post #171
alexsereno wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s going to be a real adjustment for a lot of these people to grasp that young American men are in really difficult situations socially, academically, and that it’s a key factor to underemployment, violence, etc… the concept of men’s health or men suffering feels like an attack to these people instead of a separate legitimate issue to other social topics they find important

Society made religion optional through scientific inquiry. It can make America optional too as no theory of science suggests it’s existence is immutable law. It’s going to be a real adjustment for you to accept a lot of people are without sufficient this or that in our society and you’re not really going to bat for them. You have freedom to choose without coercion. Nothing makes your sensibilities sacrosanct to anyon…

Nice job proving the parent's point.

As a young American man myself, I am constantly being told that my problems either don't matter or aren't real. I don't need anybody to go to bat for me, but how about just acknowledging that young American men do indeed face real problems instead of saying "we don't need Americans, actually."

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#300

Post by bdcravens »

PakG1 wrote: post #156

My wife and I have a beautiful daughter about to turn 2. But she wouldn't have existed if it weren't for IVF (in vitro fertilization). Had to stab her stomach with needles for a while to make hormones to mass produce eggs and then they took my sperm to put into her eggs and see which ones took. Five viable pairings happened. Three were put into her and out came the one kid. Other two are in cryo for future use, and h…

I have a medical condition where I have no vas deferens. Sadly, IVF didn't work. I don't say that to ask for sympathy, but to say that my wife went through the same series of needles, etc, without the payoff at the end. (Additionally I had to have a surgery to remove sperm from the testes, which was painful to recover from as you might imagine.) Anyone who embarks on the financial and emotional cost of IVF needs to be fully aware of the possibility that it won't work.
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