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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

#751

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have a societal problem when the rational individual choice (to provide your children the best head start) is to wait until your fertility declines to have children.

There is also a lot of pressure on women to "have a career" which contributes to them waiting to marry and have kids. It's not really possible to optimize both being a mother and having a career, it's all tradeoffs and those who choose motherhood and a more domestic life are made to feel like they have sacrificed or lost out on something.

And who exactly is putting this pressure on women? Most men would choose a healthy, fertile woman over a career oriented one. I do think it's women that are taking on the pressure themselves in their quest to have it all.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#752
post #478

I did my Master Degree in Organic Chemistry where we tried to develop a male contraceptive pill. I spend a lot of time studying sperm so here is a short list of thing to avoid regarding sperm quality (not ranked): 1. Eating and drinking from plastics (This includes aluminum cans which are plastic lined) [a] 2. Heating food in ANY type of plastic [a] 3. Caffein intake [b] 4. Sugar intake [c] 5. NOT exercising regularl…

This more or less reads like any health instruction (except for the soy products). Would you have a quantity as to how one can change plastic intake by following these recommendations? How strict does one need to be? - I mean basically everything you buy is wrapped in plastic...

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#755
post #585

I have been very interested in this topic for the last year. A huge problem here is the lack of understanding of which products have phthalates in them. Most manufacturers don't list whether their products contain them, you have to really scour the internet to find products specifically listed as not containing them. I don't know much about chemistry, but a real need here is the ability to test products for these che…

It's tough because marketing like 'BPA free' doesn't actually mean the product is free of endocrine disruptors. There are glass bottles that still have a plastic lid. I've switched all my cookware to glass or metal (no teflon). What about wooden things that are painted or glued together (plywood)? Is it better or worse than plastic? It's just about impossible to find soft furniture that isn't covered in plastic fabric.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#756
post #478

I did my Master Degree in Organic Chemistry where we tried to develop a male contraceptive pill. I spend a lot of time studying sperm so here is a short list of thing to avoid regarding sperm quality (not ranked): 1. Eating and drinking from plastics (This includes aluminum cans which are plastic lined) [a] 2. Heating food in ANY type of plastic [a] 3. Caffein intake [b] 4. Sugar intake [c] 5. NOT exercising regularl…

Growing up we never microwaved food in tupperware, but we do it daily now. None of me or my siblings (8 of us) had any sort of mental issues (and it wasn't a matter of not being diagnosed), but all of our children have so many mental issues (depression, anxiety, pulling hair out, ADHD, etc.) that we have asked each other if it could possibly be something in the environment - even though all of us live in different states/cities. Maybe we all reheat food in tuperware and eat/drink from plastics.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#758
post #757

For cultures who prefer child-bearing-age women to always be pregnant, does this affect how many children they are able to have? And will this have a negative effect on religions who encourage large families? (Edited to avoid religious flamewars)

Please don't take HN threads into religious flamewar. It never goes well, is the last thing we need here, and (fortunately) is particularly avoidable.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#759

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is of course an ideal, but in our brutal reality corporations owe no moral obligation to the society they are profiting from. They are only driven by capital and brand propagation. Sometimes a moral approach is taken as a compromise, to continue operating in peace, etc. We are left with defending ourselves as best as possible and sometimes the onslaught is too much, as indicated by multitudes of lawsuits and ent…

That’s why regulation exists.

Who will regulate the regulators then?

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#760
post #478

I did my Master Degree in Organic Chemistry where we tried to develop a male contraceptive pill. I spend a lot of time studying sperm so here is a short list of thing to avoid regarding sperm quality (not ranked): 1. Eating and drinking from plastics (This includes aluminum cans which are plastic lined) [a] 2. Heating food in ANY type of plastic [a] 3. Caffein intake [b] 4. Sugar intake [c] 5. NOT exercising regularl…

Worth noting is that sperm concentration was the only notable impact of soy consumption, leaving other measured aspects of sperm health unaffected (notably sperm motility, a critical factor in assessing sperm health).
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