Sperm Count Zero

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When a chemical affects your hormones, it's called an endocrine disruptor. And it turns out that many of the compounds used to make plastic soft and flexible (like phthalates) or to make them harder and stronger (like Bisphenol A, or BPA) are consummate endocrine disruptors. Phthalates and BPA, for example, mimic estrogen in the bloodstream. If you're a man with a lot of phthalates in his system, you'll produce less testosterone and fewer sperm. If exposed to phthalates in utero, a male fetus's reproductive system itself will be altered: He will develop to be less male.

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What's more, there is evidence that the effect of these endocrine disruptors increases over generations, due to something called epigenetic inheritance. Normally, acquired traits—like, say, a sperm count lowered by obesity—aren't passed down from father to son. But some chemicals, including phthalates and BPA, can change the way genes are expressed without altering the underlying genetic code, and that change is inheritable. Your father passes along his low sperm count to you, and your sperm count goes even lower after you're exposed to endocrine disruptors. That's part of the reason there's been no leveling off even after 40 years of declining sperm counts—the baseline keeps dropping.

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yurble
More panic over declining male fertility, and the possible end of the human race. Basically, it's all down to us poisoning our environment, and then also passing on diminished fertility.

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When a chemical affects your hormones, it's called an endocrine disruptor. And it turns out that many of the compounds used to make plastic soft and flexible (like phthalates) or to make them harder and stronger (like Bisphenol A, or BPA) are consummate endocrine disruptors. Phthalates and BPA, for example, mimic estrogen in the bloodstream. If you're a man with a lot of phthalates in his system, you'll produce less testosterone and fewer sperm. If exposed to phthalates in utero, a male fetus's reproductive system itself will be altered: He will develop to be less male.

...

What's more, there is evidence that the effect of these endocrine disruptors increases over generations, due to something called epigenetic inheritance. Normally, acquired traits—like, say, a sperm count lowered by obesity—aren't passed down from father to son. But some chemicals, including phthalates and BPA, can change the way genes are expressed without altering the underlying genetic code, and that change is inheritable. Your father passes along his low sperm count to you, and your sperm count goes even lower after you're exposed to endocrine disruptors. That's part of the reason there's been no leveling off even after 40 years of declining sperm counts—the baseline keeps dropping.

Personally I think it is great news if all the stupid things we have done to the planet are preventing reproduction, instead of only causing suffering and death in people who are already alive.

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yurble
Personally I think it is great news if all the stupid things we have done to the planet are preventing reproduction, instead of only causing suffering and death in people who are already alive.

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craftyzits

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yurble
Personally I think it is great news if all the stupid things we have done to the planet are preventing reproduction, instead of only causing suffering and death in people who are already alive.

I don't think this is the case. I think the guys with dud sperm counts came from a looooong line of dud sperm counters, only in the past no one knew that anyone had a dud count.

There is a possibility that a guy unknowingly bonked his balls hard enough to damage sperm production. I mean the poor little meatballs are pretty vulnerable swinging in the breeze the way they are.

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yurble

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craftyzits

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yurble
Personally I think it is great news if all the stupid things we have done to the planet are preventing reproduction, instead of only causing suffering and death in people who are already alive.

I don't think this is the case. I think the guys with dud sperm counts came from a looooong line of dud sperm counters, only in the past no one knew that anyone had a dud count.

There is a possibility that a guy unknowingly bonked his balls hard enough to damage sperm production. I mean the poor little meatballs are pretty vulnerable swinging in the breeze the way they are.

If you read the article it is rather clear that this is not about measuring a few guys who go in for fertility treatment. It's a broader sample and it is looking longitudinally at historic sperm counts. They've also shown that since 1995, when the current method of sperm counting was implemented, sperm numbers have continued to plummet. This appears to be happening all around the world. Men today, on average, have about half as much sperm than their grandfathers' generation.