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

991–1000 of 1001 posts

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#991

Post by flippinburgers »

TexanFeller wrote: post #855

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…

I think the simpler explanation is that young kids are doing something they see as trendy, popular, and supported to such an absurd degree that you immediately get internet points and patted on the back for doing literally nothing.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#992

Post by lemming »

themagician wrote: post #792
lemming wrote: post #772

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you create a product, put it out and have it do unimaginable damage, then pay for the health and environmental damage you did Or not. How often have companies actually had to pay for anything like the actual cost of the damage they have caused to the environment? Are there any cases when they have had to? They sometimes have to compensate a few of the humans involved, but never anything more general than that, and…

Oh, I know. Compensation is the best case scenario. Much more likely is that the entity ultimately responsible doesn't even exist by the time the issue is discovered. I don't know what the answer is here either. The EU is getting much more aggressive about this, but it's already getting to the point that to bring a new product to market strictly within the law essentially costs infinite dollars. Aviation still uses l…

it's already getting to the point that to bring a new product to market strictly within the law essentially costs infinite dollars

Of course, cleaning up various of these messes (forever chemicals, fossil fuels, etc) also costs infinite dollars, and in the meantime they also fuck up the health of the entire planet for both humans and other animals. It still seems a no-brainer to me to take the economic hit and accept slightly slower (but safer) progress. At least then we'd have a better chance of not accidentally ending the world.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#993

Post by vineyardmike »

calmdownpeople wrote: post #593
Tagbert wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caffeine has no smell so what you are detecting is some other component or effect on the semen taste. Many things can affect the taste of semen.

He said smell not taste! At least I hope he wasn't tasting the lab samples.

“Lab samples”

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#994

Post by throwaway290 »

mrguyorama wrote: post #632
balaji1 wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any anecdotes or data about the impact of sitting too much? And screen time?

Well if you spend too much time sitting and don't reduce your calorie intake to match, you get fat. Being fat generally does bad things to your health, and one known example of that is that being fat reduces your fertility.

Being fat correlates with reduced fertility. It may ultimately be caused by whatever thing that results in reduced fertility, but there is no evidence of being fat causing reduced fertility.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#995

Post by minig33 »

ironmagma wrote: post #986
4gotunameagain wrote: post #947

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently it is impossible to know whether the increasing numbers of people identifying as trans is due to less fear of punishment as you say, or due to hormonal disruption. The only way I've thought of is long term studies of endocrine disruption quantification in pregnant mothers and their children, correlated with transexualism. > This is barbaric if you think about it for more than 5 seconds. It is barbaric to no…

The expediency with which children are put on this surgery track is truly disgusting. Let them grow up and decide with a brain that can consent.

Children are not getting surgery in any significant numbers. This is a made up right wing talking point

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#996

Post by ironmagma »

minig33 wrote: post #995
ironmagma wrote: post #986

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The expediency with which children are put on this surgery track is truly disgusting. Let them grow up and decide with a brain that can consent.

Children are not getting surgery in any significant numbers. This is a made up right wing talking point

You could say the same about child abuse. That doesn’t make it not disgusting or unimportant. If you have to hide the things you are doing to children from the parents, you’re doing a bad thing.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#997

Post by ccn0p »

G3rn0ti wrote: post #941
ccn0p wrote: post #938

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there are growing studies about 1) the connection between gut biome damage and obesity and 2) that chemicals in food and products are destroying our gut biome. Putting those two things together, these signals in the article would make sense.

* citation needed

these studies really aren't that obscure or uncommon. just search for "gut biome and weight".

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#998

Post by TexanFeller »

Karawebnetwork wrote: post #974
TexanFeller wrote: post #857

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's dangerous to push the idea that minorities are caused by chemicals. But if it is true it could be dangerous to them for us not to discuss the possibility. If they are people with a medical problem rather than a perfectly naturally occurring identity then we may not be giving them the treatments that will help them most while causing them the least harm. What if there were treatments that would mitigate or reve…

> If they are people with a medical problem Being transgender is not a medical problem.

No post body was provided.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#999

Post by amai »

Could be related:

„Prenatal Exposure to Progesterone Affects Sexual Orientation in Humans“

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-016-0923-z

Progesterone can be given if the pregnant woman is older. So maybe the attemp to safe this risky pregnancies of older women by artificial hormones as side effects causes lower fertility of the offsprings. Nature is smart.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#1000

Post by d_tr »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #790

Surely motility is more of a worry than count ???.

From what I 've read so far, sperm counts do not matter much above some threshold, but the decline has brought us near that threshold. And the cause is not clear.

It sounds pretty fucking apocalyptic, but OTOH I have only seen a couple of random articles about this. I want to learn more, for sure.

Post reply on HN