Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

nationalgeographic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 1001 posts

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#421

Post by KptMarchewa »

JPKab wrote: post #368
patall wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you determine that? As far as I have heard from people working in fertilization clinics, they can help pretty much all couples that have problems with conceiving due to male fertility issues. You need to go there in the first place, but once you request help, you get it.

So that's your take? "This thing that humans have done for eons without medical assistance now requires it and that's totally fine. Nothing to see here." Really?

People slept on trees and wore nothing too.

You can extrapolate this on pretty much all human existence.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#422

Post by tenebrisalietum »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #409
maxbond wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

No one argues that every women have a right to very high paying top status jobs, yet we try to structure society so that more women achieve that.

In the US, you aren't supposed to accept handouts and are expected to work, because work is a virtue. However, it's OK and totally virtuous for someone to give you a job, or maintain a company structure to keep a job around so a person who "needs it" can keep their job, such as positions that tend to be filled by elderly.

So structuring to give out jobs like rewards is not something exclusive to giving them to women, it happens to the elderly and politically connected all the time.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#423

Post by biomcgary »

prox wrote: post #112
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…

I would be massively in favour of adding a QR Code that details as much as possible (without giving away trade secrets if that is possible) where and how something is sourced and then adding how it was processed. Much like you get a track and trace with a package.

Your proposed requirement would have a nice side benefit of making supply chains much easier to trace for other purposes (e.g., why are some shelves bare in my grocery store).

I'd want a carve out for home "manufacturers" that sell less than the US median wage per year in product. They should be able to just display the QR codes cut out from the packages of their ingredients rather than creating their own QR code infrastructure.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#424

Post by rubicon33 »

houtanb wrote: post #235

Several years ago, I switched to products that are EWG verified [1], meaning a product's ingredients are safe for humans. Some of the EWG verified products are quite expensive, so it took a while to find a brand that was affordable and safe to use. I've switched everything to that brand (shampoo, conditioner, soap, dishwasher and laundry detergent, cleaners, ...). They even have a search engine that allows you to sea…

I am not being sarcastic or facetious when I ask - Do you feel noticeably better? Better than placebo (understanding of course that such a question is a misnomer, but please address the spirit of the question).

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#425

Post by Aeolun »

yumaikas wrote: post #400
thehappypm wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another lesson from your story (similar to many of my friends’) is to just have kids younger. It sounds like you started at around 35 — if people started at 30, even, fertility is higher.

I mean, a lot of people may not have the financial option to have had kids younger. Like, the last 15 years have included two "completely upend your life" level crises, along with a lot of smaller crises that could have swept up someone.

I dunno, kids may be incompatible with a lot of lifestyles, but I wouldn’t call them inherently expensive. You just have to adjust your expectations.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#426

Post by istjohn »

justsocrateasin wrote: post #163
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

Curious if you have sources for this. I agree wholeheartedly that there are some difficult issues affecting men, socially and academically, but always struggle to back that opinion up with any meaningful facts/figures. As one of my friends said, "Positions of power are still predominantly held by men, but the average man is lagging behind the average woman". Not sure if this is necessarily true, but sometimes it feel…

Nearly 6 women enroll in American colleges and universities for every 4 men.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/young-men-...

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#427

Post by standardUser »

tnel77 wrote: post #414
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…

I have a friend who gets irrationally angry about stuff like this. “People should just do their own research!” I’d like to think I’m of above average intelligence and I have no idea how I would ever go about verifying the safety of every item I buy for my family. It’s just not feasible. What if, instead, we have a group of people who enforce safety standards and we can place some trust in them to help keep us all saf…

Why not both? Mandating companies maintain a comprehensive list of ingredients, processes, countries of origin, etc, that is readily available to the public does not prevent agencies from also enforcing standards.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#428

Post by hartator »

guessbest wrote: post #238
Arete314159 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not a man, but this reminds me of a time years ago when I started to have allergic reactions to things several times a day. My allergist put me on a strict elimination diet of triggers. I could only use unscented products for bathing and laundry, organic food only, and I even had to get rid of my teflon pans and use only stainless steel or cast iron. It sucked but it did seem to help, maybe you could try somethi…

I got rid of my teflon, but I switched to galvanized copper. Its easy to clean.

What's the brand you bought?

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#429

Post by droopyEyelids »

thehappypm wrote: post #336
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…

Another lesson from your story (similar to many of my friends’) is to just have kids younger. It sounds like you started at around 35 — if people started at 30, even, fertility is higher.

Fertility isn't the only consideration with having children when you're old.

Skin elasticity and athleticism decreases with age, and that translates into worse tearing, and more difficult births, longer recovery, and more trouble keeping up with a baby after all that.

Then, on top of all that, your parents are entering their sunset years rather where you have to help them rather than having grandparents young enough to help you with your kids.

It's also linked to things like low birth weight. I sure wish my wife & I had started earlier.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#430

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

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.…

Actually, 6 cycles is statistical average for conceiving.
Post reply on HN