Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought • Hacker News Board

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#341

Post by edgyquant » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:15 PM UTC

ghiculescu wrote: post #291

aspyct wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is an issue with the pension system. I don’t believe we’re overpopulated but it is clearly a bad system when it relies on a constant flow of more children

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#342

Post by anon99879 » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:16 PM UTC

I've never written about this before but thought it might be useful for someone who may be experiencing the same/similar problem and believes there's no real prospect of having children.

During several years of trying to conceive, I undertook 2 sperm tests with the clinic and on both occasions drew a blank - literally nothing. I can't describe how brutally crushing this is to receive as news - especially from a poorly trained medical professional who has just delivered the news to you in much the same way he would tell you the time.

Since I had an amazingly supportive and clever wife, she researched various treatments and came upon a process called microdissection testicular sperm extraction (mTESE) which I believe was pioneered in the states and brought to the UK.

One mTESE procedure later (approx £5k privately) where they were happily able to extract 8 vials of viable sperm, followed by a course of free IVF (in some UK places you get 1 free round, but can be up to 3) - 5 viable blastocysts were grown, 2 inserted - and 9 months later a happy healthy baby girl was born.

I guess the summary is, guys: if you're having issues conceiving - don't always assume its the female, and get yourself checked out asap before its too late for easy conception - success rates drop off a cliff after age 38.

Even if you're firing blanks, there is hope

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#343

Post by highwaylights » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:17 PM UTC

RC_ITR wrote: post #229

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll let the chemistry people comment on this one but phtalates are used as a 'plasticizer' they are not plastic itself as in a micro-plastic bead I am not sure how much of these plasticizers survives on the microplastic that you refer to. in our water supply or in airborne polyester fibers? Those are major sources of microplastic contamination but I am not sure they are major sources of _plasticizer_ contamination.…

>This is one of the problems, we are missing studies that can demonstrate sources and source contribution to this problem. This is why I hate when people compare climate change to other problems (like GP did). Sure, there's a lot of microplastics out there, but the science is still out on what that means for us. Meanwhile we know how bad Climate Change is, so if we have limited resources to fight problems, definitely…

Only thing I’d add is that at no point was I claiming that climate change was not serious or urgent.

My point is that people at large generally don’t care enough to be really bothered by climate change, so there’s no budget in the limited attention we as a species are willing to set aside for inconvenient truths to consider much else.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#344

Post by standardUser » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

addingadimensio wrote: post #292

standardUser wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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]

People should be free to draw their own conclusions, as idiotic as those conclusions may sometimes be. But obfuscation only creates more space for conspiratorial thinking. More transparency is the solution, not the problem.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#345

Post by ridgered4 » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

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…

We had some fertility issues as well and while IUI and time worked for the two children we have IVF was looked into. Before the whole thing I didn't understand why people didn't just adopt. But once looking into the sky high costs and uncertainty of adoption I understood why IVF is popular. It is expensive and uncertain as well, but much less so.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#346

Post by rocknor » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

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?

Population reduction is good, but once the world population falls to say 500M and you want to maintain it, you need ~2 babies per woman on average. If conceiving becomes difficult, we may not achieve that and hypothetically end up in a Children Of Men situation.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#347

Post by sircastor » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

sidewndr46 wrote: post #321

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 don't think that is how IVF works, you can't induce an adult female to produce eggs in any medically approved way. Apparently mammals are born with a finite number of eggs that just get used up as they get older.

This is exactly how IVF works. The ovaries generate more follicles, which are collected directly out of the ovary.

You can also cause the ovaries to release more eggs during a menstrual cycle to increase the likelihood of fertilizing one of them. This is IUF.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#348

Post by confuseddesi » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

dibt wrote: post #169

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…

> many in our age bracket 20-30 year olds are struggling to have children Wow... I would have thought you were referring to people that were older. I wonder what the common denominator is there, or if your experience is an outlier. It's obviously noteworthy enough to share. Maybe people that conceive without issue aren't commenting on it as much?

I wonder if there is any correlation with the use of hormonal birth control prior to attempting to conceive.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#349

Post by JPKab » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:19 PM UTC

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.

I live in Colorado, and I think it's just less oxygen and its effects on metabolism.

It's definitely not a topic that's examined enough.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#350

Post by standardUser » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:19 PM UTC

guywithahat wrote: post #324

standardUser wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't remember the last time I talked to a gay man who wasn't on PrEP. It's arguable that in reasonably responsible circles, HIV these days poses little-to-no risk, even among sexually promiscuous people. And most other common STDs are completely curable. The big exception is herpes, the spread of which is not prevented by condoms.

Condoms can absolutely prevent the spread of herpes, it's just it can also spread by kissing/etc.

If a sore is outside of the area covered by a condom, a condom doesn't do anything. But I am reading that it is recommended to use condoms to prevent the spread of herpes generally, even without an outbreak.