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Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

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Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#901
post #315

So this trend has been going on for a while now, I looked a bit into it about 5 years ago here's what I found: - Tons of popular and legal products/chemicals are "endocrine disruptors"[1] (fancy term for mess with hormones). - The FDA/EPA doesn't deny that, they don't themselves even really require tests for long-term health effects in humans (too difficult). Instead they give animals a 1000x+ dose and look for immed…

> My bet is within 20 years we'll see it as the more immediate problem than global warming. I don't want to diminish the importance of a paradigm shift in how regulators treat various chemicals, but I don't think this will be anywhere near as severe and immediate threat as climate change. Ultimately, if there is a substantial pool of people who's fertility is not adversely impacted by some yet to be identified chemic…

Which could be an issue by itself, as whatever mutation confers resistance to it could have side effects, unless it's some enhanced degradation of toxins or something.

But what if it's some other random thing that also gives people heart attacks?

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#902

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> here is a short list of thing to avoid > 7. Age [f] wait wat

"Avoid waiting (delaying) key life things you know you want" is actually great advice that even very smart people seem to fail to consider.

We (38) had our first child this year, and if there's one thing I wish I had done, it's had kids earlier. Probably in my late 20s. We didn't have any complications during pregnancy but it would have given me 10 more years to see my boy grow and would be physically easier on my wife.

Financially it would have been more difficult, but by no means impossible. On the other hand, I probably wouldn't have taken the opportunity for a complete career change, which would have made me miserable.

So if you hit professional/romantic stability in your 20s, I'd strongly encourage you to have kids as soon as possible.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#903
post #881
post #876

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Humans are awesome, Some humans are awesome. Other humans not so much. > intelligence is awesome. It is indeed, but intelligence is pretty unevenly distributed among humans. > More humans means more amazing things. It also means more stress on the planet's ecosystems. There are awesome things on earth besides humans, and one of the problems with humans is that too few of us seem to understand this. > we have the ab…

There's so much to unpack here, I'd love to have a longer form discussion in a place where we won't run out of thread depth, but I can't dig into all of the points in this format. This all gets very philosophical, but seriously, optimism is much better than pessimism here. > There are awesome things on earth besides humans Like what? Nature is cool, we shouldn't destroy it, but nothing else is truly sentient on this…

> nothing else is truly sentient

WRONG

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#904
post #881
post #876

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Humans are awesome, Some humans are awesome. Other humans not so much. > intelligence is awesome. It is indeed, but intelligence is pretty unevenly distributed among humans. > More humans means more amazing things. It also means more stress on the planet's ecosystems. There are awesome things on earth besides humans, and one of the problems with humans is that too few of us seem to understand this. > we have the ab…

There's so much to unpack here, I'd love to have a longer form discussion in a place where we won't run out of thread depth, but I can't dig into all of the points in this format. This all gets very philosophical, but seriously, optimism is much better than pessimism here. > There are awesome things on earth besides humans Like what? Nature is cool, we shouldn't destroy it, but nothing else is truly sentient on this…

> nothing else is truly sentient on this planet besides us.

Your optimism is one thing, but this human supremacist stuff is just wrong. Do you think humans are a separate form of life,evolutionarily distinct from the animal kingdom or something?

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#905
post #691
post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've given up making sousvide anything for the same reason.

I’ve been using a silicone Stasher bag for my sous vide needs, works quite well.

What makes you think silicone is any safer than all the other chemicals in this thread?

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#906

One thing that I'm genuinely curious about that I've never heard addressed is whether the large increase of people identifying as trans(trans women in particular) could be related to the same factors that are causing lowered sperm counts and testosterone in men. There are massive amounts of compounds in our environment that are endocrine disrupters or mimic sex hormones like estrogen. Like maybe many persons assumed…

> the large increase of people identifying as trans(trans women in particular) Well, that's not quite accurate. (a) there isn't a large increase of trans people, historically speaking, just folks being more open and honest about their status recently, since it's become marginally less punished in a few specific places, than it has been prior, and (b) in recent years, trans men or transmasc folks are the largest group…

Additionally, as trans people are more accepted the rate of the increasing population of trans people is slowing. This suggests that it’s stabilizing and that the population would normally always have a % of trans people if it weren’t for oppression (like left handed ness rapidly increased in the generation we stopped punishing people with left handedness and then it leveled off)

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#907
post #842
post #797

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sperm count is falling in wild animals as well.

That may be, but that is not what TFA was about. It was about human sperm counts dropping, and that is absolutely not an emergency. Humans are in no danger of going extinct.

Why don't you just go hide in a corner and stop interacting with humans if you hate them so much?

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#908
post #567
post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard on a few podcasts that this is how European countries do this. We need to stop letting for-profit companies gamble with the health and longevity of the species in the interest of profits.

You are right that this is a much better approach. The problem is Europe also has low sperm counts and are also being exposed to endocrine disruptors in the same way as the rest of the world. So whatever whitelist approach they are using does not seem to be saving them from this problem.

There's not a huge difference between what's legal to sell in Europe and the US.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#909

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “By proposing an alternative approach to sperm count data, we aim to contribute to the burgeoning discussion among reproductive health scientists and other researchers and clinicians about men’s health,” said Boulicault, lead author of the paper and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Philosophy and Linguistics at MIT A Philosophy & Linguistics PhD - just who you should trust to analyze medical results!

Personally, I have a hard time putting much stock in the opinion of those who use exclamation points.

What a ridiculous statement.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#910

One thing that I'm genuinely curious about that I've never heard addressed is whether the large increase of people identifying as trans(trans women in particular) could be related to the same factors that are causing lowered sperm counts and testosterone in men. There are massive amounts of compounds in our environment that are endocrine disrupters or mimic sex hormones like estrogen. Like maybe many persons assumed…

This is joe rogan level speculative nonsense.
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