Sperm Counts Among Western Men Have Halved In Last 40 Years, Says Study (theguardian.com)

New submitter flote shares a report from The Guardian: Sperm counts among men have more than halved in the last 40 years, research suggests, although the drivers behind the decline remain unclear. The latest findings reveal that between 1973 and 2011, the concentration of sperm in the ejaculate of men in western countries has fallen by an average of 1.4% a year, leading to an overall drop of just over 52%. The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction Update by an international team of researchers, drew on 185 studies conducted between 1973 and 2011, involving almost 43,000 men. The team split the data based on whether the men were from western countries -- including Australia and New Zealand as well as countries in North America and Europe -- or from elsewhere. After accounting for factors including age and how long men had gone without ejaculation, the team found that sperm concentration fell from 99 million per ml in 1973 to 47.1 million per ml in 2011 -- a decline of 52.4% -- among western men unaware of their fertility. For the same group, total sperm count -- the number of sperm in a semen sample -- fell by just under 60%.

Comments

Wild guess

[OrangeTide]

Obesisty?

Re:Wild guess

[bogaboga]

No...Blame the food. Whenever I go to those so called 3rd world countries, their fruits taste better, have an aroma and someone can tell that a neighbor is preparing beef or poultry from the perceived smell.

When one visits the fruit section of some of these so called healthy food stores, not an iota of smell/scent of fruit is perceived! Something is surely wrong here.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Work. Exhaustion.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly what I was going to post

Fat = more estrogen = less sperm

Not to mention the other parts of our diet.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

That, and internet porn keeping the reservoir low.

Re:Wild guess

[roc97007]

hm. Watch films from the seventies. Notice how skinny everyone is.

Re:Wild guess

[Applehu Akbar]

Obesisty?

A combination of obesity in men (besides not being able to spell) and the most highly educated women, those in academia, hating men. This is turning into a rocket ride to Idiocracy.

Re: Wild guess

[arglebargle_xiv]

Not being able to belch and fart in public, no more wolf-whistling or swearing like a sailor, the cancellation of the Man Show, eating fscking gluten-free vegan yoghurt steak-substitute, and having to get in touch with our "feelings", not only are sperm counts heading for zero, at this rate we're going to start having periods.

Re:Wild guess

[judoguy]

Exactly what I was going to post

Fat = more estrogen = less sperm

Not to mention the other parts of our diet.

Try the massive contamination of drinking water with estrogen from birth control pills as well as the estrogen mimickers such as soy products.

Every time Mr. Skinny Jeans gets a soy Cappuccino along with his Tofu smoothie, goodbye a little of the Mr. and hello a little more of the Ms.

I'm all for reproductive rights, but if you even mention the possibility that all those birth control pills are screwing up the hormonal balance of literally everything that uses water, at least in the U.S., holey moley, the feminists will scream bloody murder.

Repeat after me: "Nothing, nothing on Earth matters more than MY reproductive rights!! Not my health, not your health, not the frogs and fishes health. NOTHING!!!"

Estrogen

Estrogen

Estrogen

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Obesity is probably a symptom of the same problem that is likely causing the low counts. When a male is a contributing cause of a couples fertility issues, he needs to cut out caffine (coffee, soda, energy drinks, tea, etc.), avoid chemical preservatives (salt based are fine), stop drinking alcohol, and wear roomier pants and under garments. Many adults can lose several pounds just by cutting out the caffine and beer but if they replace the calories with something else, they may still a large increase in sperm production within 3 months.

Keep in mind all forms of reproduction issues are not an exact science. The down turn in sperm could just be an indication of the reduced amount material being used in trouser production across the last 50 years (making for less cooling airflow) for all this study actually indicates. Some early studies are even showing that your reproductive status could be an indication of how your parents treated their own bodies chemically.

Re: Wild guess

[Zero__Kelvin]

Once again you are ahead of "your time"

Re:Wild guess

[manu0601]

Try the massive contamination of drinking water with estrogen from birth control pills as well as the estrogen mimickers such as soy products.

You missed one major suspect: endocrine disruptors

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

The estrogen in soy is phytoestrogen which is similar in some ways to estrogen but has not been proven to have de-masculating effects in men. The estrogen in cows milk, on the other hand, is real estrogen - and there are 60 other hormones in there too. Now that's something to watch out for.

Re: Wild guess

[BarbaraHudson]

I don't know. I'm no where near overweight (around 15% BF) and my wife and I are having some trouble with conceiving, so I got my sperm levels checked and they are quite low. Oddly my T-levels are on the high side of normal. I'm fit and run 30-40 miles per week. No grey hair and no guy at all.

145lbs and 37 years old.

You're probably too skinny. Too low a body weight also lowers sperm production.

A man's fertility may be affected by his weight, a new study shows. Men who are either too fat or too thin may find that they have lower sperm counts, often low enough to be classed as 'impaired fertility'. The study, undertaken by researchers in Denmark and published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, could lend weight to the possibility that high levels of obesity in Western societies may be contributing to fertility problems.

The researchers studied 1558 Danish men, comparing their sperm count to their body mass index (BMI - a measure of weight in relation to height). They found that men with either a low or a high BMI had differences in reproductive hormone levels as well as lower sperm counts than men of the recommended weight. Men with a low BMI (below 20) were, on average, found to have a 28 per cent lower sperm count and a 36 per cent lower sperm concentration than men with a normal BMI. Men with a high BMI (above 25) had a 22 per cent lower sperm count and 24 per cent lower sperm concentrations.

So if you're already borderline, all that running will make it worse. Same as too high a level of testosterone will.

Also, what do you mean by "no guy at all?"

Re: Wild guess

[sexconker]

I'm guessing he meant "no gut at all".

Re: Wild guess

[DontBeAMoran]

eating fscking gluten-free vegan yoghurt steak-substitute

And where can we buy such a thing?

Thanks in advance.

Re:Wild guess

[DontBeAMoran]

Watch films from the fifties. Notice how everyone is either black or white or Michael Jackson.

Re:Wild guess

[hord]

This was my thought. Our food supply is becoming more plastic all the time and I don't meant he packaging.

Re:Wild guess

[geek]

I blame skinny jeans. I've been in boxers and loose pants for decades and have no issues. I see these young beta males running around in skin tight jeans and I just figure they never want kids or something.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

That's because everyone smoked.

Re: Wild guess

[aliquis]

Isn't the effect of soy small or nonexistent or positive? I eat a lot of licorice which is negative for a fact. But what about all of them in plastics? and such? Isn't that the real trouble. We definitely know they are in our environment.

Re:Wild guess

[jblues]

The increase in processed starchy foods and I would theorize perhaps too much reduction in saturated fats - which support male sex hormone production. In fact, while processed foods were eaten less, in favor of whole foods, including fattier meats, they were prepared with lard and tallow in place of hydrogenated vegetable oils. That fat is gone either way.

Ancel Keys showed that saturated fat wasn't good for heart health, but we may have gone overboard and/or replaced it favor of crappy overly-processed starchy foods

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi manu0601, you beat me to it! :) I was going to link to Phthalates in general since they're so commonly used, especially in food manufacturing equipment and packaging (plastics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalate They're used is far larger amounts than in contraceptive pills and since they don't chemically bind to the plastics they're put into, they can easily leech out into any food their in contact with. Leeching is also augmented by temperature, acidity, fats & oils, salt, etc.. They're ubiquitous and not something we can completely avoid without leaving civilisation behind and living in the woods.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, it's because the 12 year old boys they jacked off for the study back in the late 70's are now in their 50's, which is a normal age for sperm counts to drop drastically.

As for the under 40 crowd, when half the men are actually women who self identify as male, it cuts the average sperm count in half.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you have any data to back up that anecdote?

If I had to guess why sperm counts are down I'd say it's the rise of desk jobs for men, no activity = less testosterone, and sitting in a chair = hot testicles.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

The GP IS blaming the food. Too much of it. That is a lot more likely the cause of decreased fertility than the lack of smell in food.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

how about more masturbation than ever

Re:Wild guess

[ArylAkamov]

It is likely the packaging too, look at plastics that leech BPA, which mimics estrogen.

Re:Wild guess

[sound vision]

I was thinking along the lines of BPA, triclosan, and other chemicals that are common in food/drug related products that mimic estrogen.
I think the FDA recently banned triclosan from consumer products, but that might be too recent to have an impact on long-term studies yet.

As far as smells in the grocery store, typically things aren't cooked in the store throughout the day, and when they are it's in a separate room with probably separate ventilation. "Rooms" and "ventilation" are things that don't exist in a third-world open-air BBQ pit.

Re:Wild guess

[LeftCoastThinker]

Not sure if that is the cause, but the issue you describe is related to the fact that most fruits and vegetables these days are grown far away, and to save money on refrigeration, the fruit is picked green and allowed to ripen in transit. The downside is that the chemical processes are not the same as ripening on the tree/vine/etc. and you wind up with highly acidic produce lacking in some nutrients.

Re:Wild guess

[LeftCoastThinker]

Now that I would believe, which is one of the reasons why my family only drinks RO filtered water (made by my RO filter under my sink). That and I prefer not to drink the chemical waste from the aluminum fabrication process (sodium fluoride)...

Re:Wild guess

[4wdloop]

Partially, PlayBoy and Internet continue to drain the resources?

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm under the impression that soy protein mimics estrogen. Soy is in almost everything now. It didn't used to be.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems you misunderstand the meaning of the term "snowflake", and have used it in error. Do you self-identify as a Liberal? If so, that might explain it, as that group routinely misapplies labels to others.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Guys like you have been "warning" us that guys like you are a dying breed for at least a century now. If you're not going to do us the courtesy of actually dying out, could you at least notice that it's not actually happening and stop crying about it?

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

It's almost certainly many different things. From clothing to life style to diet and chemical exposure.

Re:Wild guess

[BouncingBob]

I think you mean "the most highly educated women, those in academia, having higher standards". Granted, it seems like hate to the guys who don't measure up...

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget the decreasing consumption of nicotine...

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

These feminists sound like the worst. I mean, at least the ones that definitely exist and definitely said things that are characterized accurately by what you put in quotes. The articles you linked don't have any feminists saying anything like that, but the post is modded 5 informative so I'm assuming it's good information, and not jumping to conclusions. About feminism.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously. There's not even a single state in the US right now where fat men aren't the majority. On average it comes out to only one in four men in the US not being fat. Meanwhile every fat man thinks he's a "big guy" or "wears it well". For some reason fat men just don't seem to get that they're fat. Or that yes, people who take care of themselves want a partner who does the same in return. It's not some insane standard or anything. It's just that the fiction presented by the TV and movie industry where only men care about looks doesn't exist. Humans care about looks, and just as much about what those looks say about someone's lifestyle.

Re:Wild guess

[serviscope_minor]

A combination of obesity in men (besides not being able to spell) and the most highly educated women, those in academia, hating men

When did "women won't have sex with me" turn into "women hate all men".

Most of the women in academia that I know personally are in relationships. Bit of an odd claim that they hate men.

Re: Wild guess

[thegarbz]

Also, what do you mean by "no guy at all?"

Possibly you have identified the root cause of the lack of sperm count.

Re:Wild guess

[AmiMoJo]

How is "the most highly educated women, those in academia, hating men" supposed to lower the male population's sperm count?

That's one batshit crazy conspiracy theory.

And it's not even true. The biggest misandrists are men, the ones who go around calling others "beta" and "cuck" all day.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

#baizou

Re:Wild guess

[AmiMoJo]

Banning the pill doesn't sound like a very clever thing to do. Even if you don't care about reproductive rights, keeping population growth down is pretty important.

How about instead of screaming at straw feminists we look for a solution that helps everyone?

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

What year did it become compulsory to add high fructose corn syrup to all prepared food?

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

He meant to say he was entirely heterosexual.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

So what mechanism do you suggest these academic harpies are using to lower men's sperm count?

Do their cleverly constructed arguments make men so despair at their many failings that their gonads give up or do their scornful withering glares make testicles literally shrivel, like some feminist Superwomen?

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Michael Jackson was born in 1958, and started his career in 1964. What was this about the 1950s again...?

Re: Wild guess

[Zontar The Mindless]

That's a town in Guizhou. Did you mean baizuo?

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Cute.

Please quote where the poster advocates "banning the pill".

Thanks.

Moron.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Could be worth pointing out that the alfa was a violent serial rapist and that females preferred mating with beta males in the study that popularized the terms.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Pesticides

Re:Wild guess

[Applehu Akbar]

"Women won't have sex with me" is the kind of complaint you get from one man whose whole demeanor doubtless radiates low sperm count. "All sex is rape," on the other hand, is the war cry of a whole class of academic women whose goal seems to be to drive men off campus.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks.

Moron.

You didn't need to sign off on your post. We could already tell who you were from your response.

Re:Wild guess

[Bender Unit 22]

I was thinking of this yesterday in the supermarket here in Denmark. I went past the bakery and I could actually smell the bread, and it didn't smell like bake-off.
It triggered memories from my childhood in the 80's when we went to Italy every summer.
I was often sent to the supermarket to shop for dinner and wine(funny now I think about it, I was 12 or 14. :D). I remember that going through the supermarket and it would be smell like food in every section and I really loved it.
Yesterday, I went through the entire supermarket without sensing any food smells except the unusual smell of bread. Yesterday, I was in the mood for cooking and went to the supermarket to be inspired, but I left without anything but fresh potatoes and some mediocre fish cakes.

(I usually visit my local butcher to get inspired for dinner but she has closed for 3 weeks)

Re:Wild guess

[TimothyHollins]

I don't think GP suggested banning the pill.

Perhaps the issue could be lessened with different strength versions being available? You know, match the strength to your actual uptake capacity. It would be sort of tricky since you'd need to take pill and then measure the concentrations in the urine, and I doubt many people would do it.

Or perhaps we could stop selling pills and start marketing patches more aggressively? They work just like nicotine patches but stay on for a week. They work a lot better when it comes to a slow, controlled, release which should (theoretically) reduce the amount of non-binding estrogen diffused in urine. It is also much easier to dispose of safely, as it does not dissolve in water. Finally, changing patches once a week is much easier to remember than swallowing a pill every day.

Or some other "operation" method, which are the ones the local gynos keep recommending as they are the most effective. But they are more invasive, and not everyone is comfortable with them (and it doesn't work for everyone).

I most certainly don't want the women in my presence to stop using contraceptives, but I also want my children my grow up on a planet that has fishes, insects, and small mammals.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Likely those with a low BMI are the ones more prone to certain sperm-destroying behaviors. Spandex running/biking shorts, tight jeans, etc. Testicles need to stay several degrees below body temperature for proper sperm production, so wearers of tight pants are going to have serious fertility issues.

Re: Wild guess

[Oswald McWeany]

See... and I assumed it was actually all the fapping to xHamster. Men in the west no longer have a chance to build up sperm count because it's constantly being shot out in front of a screen.

Re:Wild guess

[msauve]

Watch films from the 20's. No one could talk.

Re: Wild guess

[BarbaraHudson]

Testicles need to stay several degrees below body temperature for proper sperm production, so wearers of tight pants are going to have serious fertility issues.

Natural selection at work - hipsters will become extinct. YAY!

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

obesity and diabetes are definitely causes of lower testosterone

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't believe that in a human group and society in general there people who are more dominate and others who are more subordinate? I'll agree that humans have more complex social interactions. The dominate leader may change based on the social circle or even the current environment or task at hand. Alphas can cooperate, share dominance, promote a beta to an alpha role for a specific reason, etc.

There are some people who never take a dominant role, they are probably omegas.

I'm not sure how to classify the "lone wolf". For instance, you in your mom's basement all alone, is it a choice, did your mom make you or were you forced there by society? Choosing to do what you want could make an alpha, being forced there by your mom may make you a beta in that family circle, general fear of society and responsibility makes you an omegas.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems you misunderstand the meaning of the term "snowflake", and have used it in error. Do you self-identify as a Liberal? If so, that might explain it, as that group routinely misapplies labels to others.

Don't need to pull politic in to use as an insult. I fed the troll (you) because I don't like how people turn a discussion into a political argument by adding their own political bias regardless how silly the GP post is (GP didn't get the joke).

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Counter-top distiller here. 0 ppm FTW

Re: Wild guess

[mrclevesque]

Republicans and Liberals routinely misapply labels to others.

And some labels are just a waste of time.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. This completely unscientific anecdote based on one guys fruit is maximum insightful! You idiots.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't have a low sperm count and my hair started greying when I was 23. Grey hair might mark someone as older but it has nothing to do with anything else.

Re:Wild guess

[DickBreath]

It is not just Obesity.

Smoking is a culprit as well. Smoking affects both the color and taste of semen. Uh, so I am told. So it might affect sperm count and motility as well.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Right; it is well documented that there are feminizing hormones in the environment. I remember articles about it years and years ago and the effect on frog populations and the article theorized that it would not be long before the effects showed up in humans. And here they are.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

the cancellation of the Man Show,

The Man Show was doomed when the original hosts left. It was painful to watch after that and needed to be canned. The real tragedy is that they didn't release an uncensored version on DVD.

Re: Wild guess

[countach74]

15% body fat isn't particularly skinny. Your reference talks about men with a BMI less than 20. I hover at around 10-11% body fat and have > 20 BMI. Honestly, BMI is such a poor measure of anything at all that I doubt that study is very useful. Also relevant: having less body fat than the OP, I apparently have a very high sperm count (or something) as my wife and I have barely been able to stop having children. It may be that being very skinny has an effect on fertility, but it's one of many factors and my guess is neither me nor the OP are skinny enough to matter.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to do that as well, until I found out that water filters were created by 'big haberdashery' as a way of off-loading toxic socks.

Re:Wild guess

[JonnyCalcutta]

Just ignore that class then. I mean how hard can that be - a class is what, max 30 or 40 people? Jeez Louise!

Re:Wild guess

[JonnyCalcutta]

You're not meant to smoke them. Try snorting them instead.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Feminism.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

It's also a death sentence to mention the increased estrogen and estrogen mimickers in a discussion about transgenders and homosexuality. Even suggesting that we do a comparison of estrogen intake in males and observe gender identity and sexual preferences is seen as a greater crime than genocide.

Re: Wild guess

[roc97007]

That's true, and it makes food taste like ashes and regret, but I'm wondering if that's the only reason.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

We're all taking stabs in the dark. This one is mine: availability of porn and people beat off more frequently now than they ever have. When you go into give a sample, you'll still be "refilling" if you did it recently, which would scew metrics.

Re:Wild guess

[electroniceric]

Good points, notwithstanding the snark about hipsters being feminine (I mean, where do you go with lumberjack beard AND skinny jeans?).

Anyway, I think you're missing a huge culprit, possible the biggest one: PLASTIC.

It's in absolutely everything. These even if you're drinking raw tiger blood, if you're on Slashdot odds I daresay you're not out in the tundra killing it with your stone-tipped spear. That means organic or "conventional", vegan or meagan, it's been shipped in plastic, or you're consuming it in a plastic container, with plastic utensils.

Plastic is a known estrogen mimic:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

I'd bet on plastic over soy any day.

Though to be fair, soy is found in a fair wider variety of foodstuffs than anyone had imagine. Plus, when you get into questions of diet and the effect of different foods it gets really hard to figure out what the "natural" human diet is.

Re:Wild guess

[AmiMoJo]

When did "women won't have sex with me" turn into "women hate all men".

It's a coping mechanism. Rather than thinking that they are somehow inadequate or unlovable, they choose to believe that women simply hate men and are only trying to exploit them. That way not only isn't it a personal failing, it's actually a positive thing, unlike the poor cucks and betas getting used.

It started with the Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) movement, and kind of developed into a philosophy until it was adopted by other groups like incels (guys suffering "involuntary celibacy", i.e. can't get a anyone to sleep with them) and simple misogynists too.

I have some sympathy for those guys, a lot of them have clearly had bad experiences, and relationships are very important to people. But reading some of the stuff on Reddit is pretty scary.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Check in the western women... maybe you'll find the missing sperm

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

You might want to go apply for a job at Facebook or Google because you have a knack for spotting fake news and I hear they have a problem with that. Even though I chuckled at your post, I have to step up for women here:

First Article: "It's not yet clear if levels of EE2 found in waterways affect mammals' reproductive cycle, she said"

Second Article: "But according to USGS, such chemicals and medications are so diluted—at levels equal to a thimble full of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool—that they do not pose a health threat."

Third Article: "found that introducing small amounts of estrogen into a lake" which were to the tune of 5e-6 mg/L versus the several orders of magnitude "smaller" measurements in our drinking water which are 4e-10 mg/L. The article should have been written "found that introducing large amounts of estrogen..." but relativity is hard for some people.

But you are free choose to ignore the science (albeit limited amounts) in those stories and focus on the sensational drama drowning it out for profit, whilst wearing a tin foil hat, and make this a gender equality issue to blame women any plausible health concern you might have. Wait till you hear about this other toxin called fluoride!

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

"No one should have to use xHamster." - John McAfee

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Doubtful, since tobacco use is at its lowest point in several decades. Your username does lend some credibility to your second point.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

More likely all the estrogen in the agricultural runoff.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a lot of factors that can impact fertility. Sperm count is one. I have a higher than average count but it still took a year to conceive. When I did I somehow got identical twins. Lucky me.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

The hipster trait is not genetic (have you ever see hipsters who's parents are hipsters?) They pick it up from the environment not mom and dad.

Re: Wild guess

[arkane1234]

You're misidentifying republicans as liberals.
See what I did there? The same as you. Please stop.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

hm. Watch films from the seventies. Notice how skinny everyone is.

I don't remember any shortage of fat people in films from the 70s.

Re:Wild guess

[jd.schmidt1]

I have heard this also and one tip I saw that made sense it take another look at canned and frozen vegetables (otherwise minimally processed). I have heard those are picked and frozen or canned closer to fully ripe and that well done those processes really do a good job of preserving the food. Also, locally produced is good.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

yes, partially rotten food smells stronger when heated

Re:Wild guess

[omfglearntoplay]

You might try out a home bread maker... couple hundred bucks from Amazon, but my god it is about 1000 times better than the chemical laden junk in stores in the US at least.

Re:Wild guess

[omfglearntoplay]

The birth control in the water was a thing at least as far back as the 90s in the UK from what I remember. I don't think eating tofu actually causes harm though from what I've read.

What scares me is not just the birth control runoff in drinking water, but all the other scary ass chemicals that might be in there that we all consume. It can't be too healthy.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

the cancellation of the Man Show

Every time Jimmy Kimmel gets on his soap box I think of girls jumping on trampolines.

Re:Wild guess

[lsatenstein]

No...Blame the food. Whenever I go to those so called 3rd world countries, their fruits taste better, have an aroma and someone can tell that a neighbor is preparing beef or poultry from the perceived smell.

When one visits the fruit section of some of these so called healthy food stores, not an iota of smell/scent of fruit is perceived! Something is surely wrong here.

So do we blame Monsanto for the GMFruit? In my youth, a Tomato was bright red, and juicy. Now the ones we buy (packaged on the vine), are pink, dry and bland.
Pretty soon there will be seedless tomatoes. I want seeds that I can put into my own backyard and grow the old juicy red tomatoes of yesteryear.

Re:Wild guess

[WeezulDK]

Soy. Look at the harmful effects from soy.

Re:Wild guess

[cthulhu11]

PLEASE stop spreading the Weston A Price bullshit re soy.

Diet is a factor, including meat consumption and preservatives

http://www.nationalchickencoun...

Re:Wild guess

[K. S. Kyosuke]

It can still be the case that everyone was black or white or Michael Jackson even if nobody was Michael Jackson.

Re:Wild guess

[ath1901]

Citation needed! I can't believe this got +5 Insightful.

Where is the evidence supporting your claim? Has the nutritional value of fruits decreased since the 70s? You could blame anything that has changed since 1973. Why not the lack of lead in gasoline or Internet porn?

Before anyone blames it on any hormone like chemical found in plastics/fertilizers/pesticides/whatever, please show that our exposure has at least increased! For many nasty chemicals our exposure peaked in the 70-80s which increased awareness and regulations during later generations. Our exposure has decreased for many nasties, not increased. Lead being the obvious example but probably many other nasties like plastic softeners etc.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

1m77 and 65kg with no guy (gut) but 15% body fat and you think he may be too thin?
If he's a runner and not very muscular, he's in great shape!

To the gpp: just go at it 3 times a day and those troubles of conceiving will soon be history.
And in any case, they won't feel like troubles at all. On top of which, you and your wife will have a very solid relationship!

Re:Wild guess

[Cinnamon Beige]

There's other methods of birth control which not only do not screw with the environment but are a lot safer for women. If you tried getting your standard version of the Pill through the FDA now, about the only thing that'd actually get it approved would be feminists claiming that it's getting blocked because apparently it's misogyny to insist that a medicine that's intended at least mostly for women stand up to the same level of scrutiny as any other medicine.

A surprising number of pharmaceuticals get dumped out of the body in urine pretty much intact. There's little to no effort to actually remove these from sewage during the treatment process. A lot of the indicators are that this is actually one of the nastier overall types of pollution--but, well, actually doing something about it would require personal sacrifice by the privileged classes, instead of symbolic acts, virtue-signalling, or pushing the sacrifices onto the less-privileged.

Of course, if you want a very safe, very reliable, very environmentally-friendly form of birth control? Get a vasectomy.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Obesity?

No... Pornhub.

Re:Wild guess

[Cinnamon Beige]

Implants have currently the best success rate when it comes to female contraception--better than anything short of a hysterectomy--and the main problem is that the cost of having to take them out later isn't apparently mentioned, which suggests two basic problems of varying significance. "Removal costs money" is something that ought to be covered in obtaining informed consent.. Designing it so it'll be completely absorbed into the body when spent, however, would have distinct benefits--especially if that doubles as a way for a woman to tell how much longer her implant is likely to remain effective.

Re:Wild guess

[dryeo]

They've also been bred (and now GMO'd) for the characteristics of shipping well and looking good in the store, rather then being nutritious.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

It is likely the packaging too, look at plastics that leech BPA, which mimics estrogen.

Don't forget Tofu and other soy-based products "In a Harvard study published in the journal Human Reproduction, Jorge E. Chavarro, M.D., Sc.D., and his colleagues found a strong association between men’s consumption of soy foods and decreased sperm counts."

Re: Wild guess

[Straycat35]

Endocrine disrupters like many plastics.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

I was thinking more along the lines of we're putting half of the sperm into the wrong hole.

Re:Wild guess

[EzInKy]

No need for a bread maker. I bake my own sourdough loaves weekly with starter I made years ago and keep fresh in the fridge. The process is so easy I call it "the lazy man hobby".

Step One: Pull starter out of fridge.

Step Two: Mix 50 grams of starter with 150 grams each of water and flour in a clean container and set aside until it bubbles. Stir is down and place in back in fridge.

Step Three: Place the rest of the starter in a clean bowl, mix in 450 grams of flour, 10 grams of salt, and 250 grams of water.

Step Four: Let sit for an hour or so.

Step Five: Shape into a ball.

Step Six: Let sit until doubled in size.

Step Seven: Knock the dough down, place in baking pan and let sit until doubled in size again.

Step Eight: Bake at 450F for 50 minutes or until internal temp reaches 210F.

Step Nine: Let cool.

Step Ten: Eat your freshly baked sourdough bread.

Re:Wild guess

[RockDoctor]

When did "women won't have sex with me" turn into "women hate all men".

At about the 3rd or 4th rejection.

Re: Wild guess

[RockDoctor]

The word you're looking for is "plasticisers", not "plastics". Plastics are, by definition, large, polymeric molecules which are essentially immobile under physiological conditions. "Plasticisers" on the other hand are small mobile molecules which disrupt the adhesion between polymer chains (not limited to cross-linking, though that is something you want to control too), making the bulk mixture more flexible and elastic. (Sometimes plasticity is desired, but more often elasticity.) Plasticiser molecules are far more mobile under physiologically relevant conditions than plastic polymers. Just to confuse the matter (not that plastics chemistry isn't already the subject of dozens of journals and hundreds of thousands of published papers - and the proprietory work within companies), some monomers which have not polymerised into the bulk plastic act as plasticisers - and also remain mobile.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

making the friggin frogs gay!

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

People are really still making fun of skinny jeans.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

wilder guess:

too much pr0n. guys aren't giving their balls a chance to fully recharge.

Re: Wild guess

[BarbaraHudson]

RE: fertility - That's what she said. But seriously, just because you can reproduce easily with one woman doesn't mean that you will have the same results with another.

The percentage of body fat is a better indicator than BMI by itself. Low body fat == more likely to have problems reproducing. Same as too much body fat. There is an optimum weight and an optimum amount of body fat.

Re: Wild guess

[BarbaraHudson]

The hipster trait is not genetic (have you ever see hipsters who's parents are hipsters?) They pick it up from the environment not mom and dad.

WARNING WARNING LACK OF FUNNY BONE DETECTED!

Re: Wild guess

[countach74]

Definitely. Many factors at play, for sure. And yes, body fat is a better indicator, I would assume. But because the study used BMI, we don't really know at what body fat percentage it's a problem, unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible. Either way, 15% body fat is solidly in the range of healthy and is normal for a fit man.

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Men used to be scared of masturbating because god might get mad.

Re:Wild guess

[Tintivilus]

Go nuts

Re:Wild guess

[DontBeAMoran]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:Wild guess

[martinfb]

Of course!
Fat men have fat sperm; which means less sperm per unit area.

It's like airline seats: once upon a time, a normal sized human could fit 1 person per seat - 3 in a half row (3 seats).
Now, one fat person takes that entire half-row!

It's not rocket science. It's survival of the fattest!

Re: Wild guess

[BarbaraHudson]

Definitely. Many factors at play, for sure. And yes, body fat is a better indicator, I would assume. But because the study used BMI, we don't really know at what body fat percentage it's a problem, unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible. Either way, 15% body fat is solidly in the range of healthy and is normal for a fit man.

No, 18.5 is the lower range for healthy BMI. 15 is too low. As for body fat, almost nobody accurately measures it - they use readings that are completely bogus from exercise machines and scales.

Re:Wild guess

[Swave An deBwoner]

Step Eleven: Go to bed.

Step Twelve: Pull starter out of the fridge.

...

Re:Wild guess

[Ocker3]

This comment, is just, so, well, 1991, but also, ya'know, like, referential and stuff. I dunno, I can't come up with a really cool comment like I was hoping, but I Really got a kick out of yours :D

Re:Wild guess

[LordWabbit2]

There is also BPA in some heat sensitive paper - you know, like the one they use in every till and card machine. I was working on some software for handheld computers which connect to a thermal printer to print receipts, invoices etc. They original chop who coded it (was an idiot) hard coded all the company details, address, phone numbers etc. By the time they got me to change it the company had changed address three times and even their tax numbers, phone numbers etc. So moving it into a database and removing the hard coding required a LOT of test printing. Out of curiosity I looked up what was in it. After that I was very careful to keep my exposure to the paper down, just in case. My moobs are big enough as it is.

As far as smells go, I am in a 3rd world country, and we don't ALL use barbecue pits. I for instance use a standing barbecue, see some first world stuff has rubbed off. To be honest though, the fruit probably smells "better" because it's lower grade fruit, all the best fruit is exported. My wife went to the U.K. once and couldn't believe the quality of the fruit and remarked on it to the cashier, who told her it came from her own country.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

check out ketogenic diet, that will lead to a lot of research.

It turns out our food pyramid is upside down. It's all the carbs that are making us unhealthy, one of the symptoms being obesity.

I recently changed over to ketodiet. I eat now bacon guilt free, and feel better than in years :)

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Having recently learned about ketogenic diet, which lead to a lot of research data on the field ... Wow!

It's more than just the soy and tofu, the estrogen everywhere ... It's the whole fucking cuisine that is fucked up so totally

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out ketosis and ketogenic diet.

This group of people are very keen on actual research data. Hell, the sole reason why Atkins and Paleo works is because they eat close to ketogenic diet.

Natural human diet was rich in fat. Fat has been made evil. Consumption of sugar and introduction of diet products which replace fat with sugar, go hand in hand with obesity. Hell even type 2 diabetes is reversible!

Captch: coronary

Re: Wild guess

[countach74]

BMI of 15 is certainly too low. But I don't see where that was ever mentioned. The OP said 15% body fat.

Re: Wild guess

[BarbaraHudson]

Body fat percentages below 18% for men are also a problem. Athletes (who have lower body fat percentages) also have reproductive problems due to, among other things, lower sperm counts. The body interprets lower fat as a time of famine, and it's not exactly a great situation to bring new offspring into the world, where their survival may be problematic. Stick to 18-25% (normal) for the greatest chance of success for men, 25-31% for women.

Outside the norms in either direction carries consequences.

Re: Wild guess

[countach74]

Body fat percentages below 18% for men are also a problem. Athletes (who have lower body fat percentages) also have reproductive problems due to, among other things, lower sperm counts.

Citation needed. It's true that female athletes are effected this way, but I am unaware and cannot find anything indicating the same is true for men, OTHER than the study mentioned earlier which talked about BMI, which is a poor measure of anything. I feel like we're going in circles here, as it seems that you keep referencing the study that studied the effects of BMI, yet now we're talking about body fat. Or I'm missing something, which is entirely possible.

Re:Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

The other big thing is the crop cultivars grown for stores have a different order of values. Flavor comes last after appearance (people don't like to buy cosmetically blemished fruit), shelf life (long shelf life is desired), harvest time (short window is desired)

Re: Wild guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet they still did it enough for us to have words to describe it. The world 80 years ago was just like today, except everyone was in denial about the shit they got up to.

Sitting: it's bad for your nuts, too...

[Anonymous Coward]

...seriously....let the poor guys get some air once in a while.

Re:Sitting: it's bad for your nuts, too...

[jordanjay29]

We could solve this by switching from trousers to skirts. The Scots proved it to be a viable male garment.

Re:Sitting: it's bad for your nuts, too...

[DickBreath]

I have a theory about why guys would be averse to skirts. It's the same reason guys want women to wear them. It makes groping and feeling up easier. Just sayin' That theory is enough to override any other advantages there may be to wearing one tube of cloth instead of two tubes of cloth.

Re:Sitting: it's bad for your nuts, too...

[RockDoctor]

Scots only started wearing kilts (as ceremonial garb) in around 1820 (Georgy-Porgy's visit to Edinburgh), and few wear them as day-to-day garb today. Before then, they'd often wind the pleid mhor around the legs to form a loose pair of "trews", or as would be described elsewhere, loincloths. By the way, "Braveheart" was stirring uplifting bullshit.

Re:Sitting: it's bad for your nuts, too...

[jordanjay29]

True, although the male skirt, as part of a tunic or other masculine garb, is an ancient garment. The Scots were hardly the first to come across the innovation, and won't be the last to make it popular. It was the horse that made trousers a necessity for men.

Re:Sitting: it's bad for your nuts, too...

[RockDoctor]

It was the horse that made trousers a necessity for men.

Probably true. If it weren't for the horse, "trousers" as an idea probably wouldn't exist outside the Nenets, Yamal and Inuit.

birth control pills

[Anonymous Coward]

in the water

Count THIS!

[mnemotronic]

Ha! {wipes off mouse}

Re:Count THIS!

[Anonymous Coward]

*Ahem* It's even worse than was initially reported.

Re:Count THIS!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not at work, c'mon man...

Pornography.

[intellitech]

Easier access to porn. Duh.

Masterbating is bad for you!

Re:Pornography.

[Anonymous Coward]

Citation needed. K. Thx.

Re:Pornography.

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously you have no sense of humor

Re:Pornography.

[DontBeAMoran]

Masterbating is bad for you!

I agree, masterbating is very bad. Masturbating, on the other hand, is enjoyable.

Re:Pornography.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hah, good catch

Re:Pornography.

[dogvomit]

Masturbating, on the other hand, is enjoyable.

Masturbating on the other hand sounds kinky. I think the floor is an easier target.

--
Happy happy oh my friend.

Re:Pornography.

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously you have no sense of humor

swoosh
Print out the preceding several comments and re-read them after you've reached 18 years old. You'll understand better then.

Re:Pornography.

[Anonymous Coward]

What about if I'm not so great at it on the other hand?

Re:Pornography.

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, masterbating is very bad. Masturbating, on the other hand, is enjoyable.

I find it enjoyable with either hand

Re:Pornography.

[DickBreath]

Masturbating affects one's ability to spell correctfully.

Re:Pornography.

[arkane1234]

What if you only have one hand?

Re:Pornography.

[RockDoctor]

I don't know. Frottage rubs me up the wrong way.

Won't matter to some of us

[Anonymous Coward]

Heck, my wife gets pregnant if I look at her too long.

Re:Won't matter to some of us

[ShanghaiBill]

Heck, my wife gets pregnant if I look at her too long.

I don't think so. You might want to get a paternity test done on "your" kids.

Re:Won't matter to some of us

[Anonymous Coward]

23andme confirms that they're mine.

Please check a dictionary for the definition of "hyperbole".

Re:Won't matter to some of us

[Anonymous Coward]

23andme confirms that they're mine.

Please check a dictionary for the definition of "hyperbole".

Hah! Made you look.

Re:Won't matter to some of us

[Anonymous Coward]

..and my woman comes by wanting it bareback every time her husband creeps her out by staring at her. Imagine that!

Re:Won't matter to some of us

[Anonymous Coward]

Just clean her off with bleach when you're done, please.

Re:Won't matter to some of us

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL somebody's sensitive. Protesting too much, I'd say.

Re:Won't matter to some of us

[DigiShaman]

Some women are just really fertile! The the vaginal chemistry would be that of keeping the sperm alive long enough to wait out an egg to be available. Of course, having healthy sperm to live long enough, and travel, is just as important too.

Don't rely on just a condom. Sometime leaking can occur at the base of the "johnson" if you keep at it for sport. Just a drop or a thin film of the seminal fluid is all it takes to get her pregnant under the right conditions.

Re: Won't matter to some of us

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop looking at her with your dick.

Re: Won't matter to some of us

[Anonymous Coward]

No he's right, his wife gets pregnant real easily. All the guys say so.

Males

[Anonymous Coward]

are much more effeminate than just a generation ago.

Alot of guys now it's hard to tell if they're not a girl, esp. from the back. Esp. that stupid pompadour haircut that makes you look like a lesbian.

Re:Males

[Anonymous Coward]

How dare you talk about Justin Trudeau like that!

Re:Males

[mnemotronic]

sperm counts are are result of hair style? Interesting theory. Have you talked to your therapist about your fears around this?

And by "Interesting" I mean in the same why that {#politician_name} is a {#random_insult} with {his|her|it's} {#random_body_part} {in|up} their {#random_body_part}.

Re:Males

[Anonymous Coward]

In the practice of medicine there is a differentiation of treatment according to the Yin and Yang of men and women. There is also a difference in pulse. In the last fity years, however, men’s pulse has become the same as women’s. Noticing this, in the treatment of eye disease I applied women’s treatment to men and found it suitable. When I observed the application of men’s treatment to men, there was no result. Thus I knew that men’s spirit had weakened and that they had become the same as women, and the end of the world had come. Since I witnessed this with certainty, I kept it a secret.
-Hagakure

Re: Males

[Anonymous Coward]

When 50% of the "men" are women who identify as men, it drops the spermcount overall. Because no matter how hard you try, you're still just a bitch with her tits cut off and a mental illness.

Re: Males

[Anonymous Coward]

Were you sent here from 1967 for being too square?

Re:Males

[omnichad]

are much more effeminate than just a generation ago.

You actually may actually be on to something. Part of that can be obesity (estrogen is generated by fat cells). But xenoestrogens from plastics (esp. BPA) and phytoestrogens from soy are entering the diet and the water supply in increasing quantities.

Re: Males

[mnemotronic]

...sigh...

I sense great fear in you, Skywalker. You have hate. You have anger. But you don't use them.

Unfortunately

[Anonymous Coward]

This doesn't seem to be slowing down the North American Pavement Apes any.

Re: Unfortunately

[Anonymous Coward]

Never heard Mormons called that before.

Re: Unfortunately

[Anonymous Coward]

Niqgers, you fucking imbecile.

Re:Is this a bad thing?

[lobiusmoop]

Reminds me of the first 5 minutes of Idiocracy... the high-IQ couple with the fertility issue. Meanwhile the overall population is now 7.5Bn and still rising,,, Oh well.

Extremely interesting...

[Sqreater]

Have they done a study to determine if there has been a balancing increase in sperm production by western women?

Re:Extremely interesting...

[DontBeAMoran]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=futanari (NSFW*!!!)

* probably NSFH either.

Re:Extremely interesting...

[omnichad]

Dr. Ian Malcolm: I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way.

Re:Extremely interesting...

[RockDoctor]

"A genre or character in art or literature that features a female that has all feminine attributes except that she has a penis. This can include her having a vagina, .." Most likely NSFW, but otherwise it's just the well-known "shemale" trope. You can find adverts for this in your local newspaper - look for the keyword "operation".

"Sperm counts among men..."

[turkeydance]

really?

Re:"Sperm counts among men..."

[Anonymous Coward]

lol, yes, a bit redundant.

Re:"Sperm counts among men..."

[bobbied]

I don't know if that's redundant or not... These are interesting days....

Re:"Sperm counts among men..."

[SCVonSteroids]

It's almost as if it's implying men are getting together to count sperm!

Re:"Sperm counts among men..."

[Anonymous Coward]

Men, as opposed to dogs or cattle.

Re:"Sperm counts among men..."

[wooferhound]

I demand a recount

Re:"Sperm counts among men..."

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be a Democrat.

Re:"Sperm counts among men..."

[TranquilVoid]

In a follow-up study, sperm counts amongst women remain precisely steady.

Re:"Sperm counts among men..."

[Bodhammer]

Or sheep. (Just sayin'). "Noooooooootttttttttttt Baaaaaaaaaaaad!"

Re:"Sperm counts among men..."

[Anonymous Coward]

Except for your mom.

Re:"Sperm counts among men..."

[Anonymous Coward]

Just a believer in the Erectoral College.

Pthalates and bromides.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hormone interfering chemicals sold to you as conveniences and assured safe by corporate-paid liars have shrunk your balls, son.

Don't worry, Republicanism is pretending it's not a problem.

Re: Pthalates and bromides.

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair, why is lower fertility a problem?

We live on a planet of limited resources. Adding billions of people to the planet is going to hurt the survivability of our race.

Re: Pthalates and bromides.

[Anonymous Coward]

Having all of the humans on earth eventually be African muslims hurts the survivability of the species because we'll never make it out of the solar system

Re: Pthalates and bromides.

[BarbaraHudson]

Religion is hereditary? Only to the same extent as stupidity.

Re: Pthalates and bromides.

[easyTree]

Which is why our diets are being used to limit population. War is losing favour and other means of overtly culling the general population are still not widely acceptable. Soya FTW!

Re: Pthalates and bromides.

[easyTree]

I imagine there's data to indicate that religion is socially inherited as are eating habits etc from those around us who generally share genes.

Re: Pthalates and bromides.

[BarbaraHudson]

In other words, not inherited. The fact that every ethnic group known to man has a strong cohort who follow religion tends to discredit the idea that it's inherited.

Re: Pthalates and bromides.

[easyTree]

In other words it makes little practical difference if it's inherited as it derives from circumstances which walk hand-in-hand with heredity.

Re: Pthalates and bromides.

[BarbaraHudson]

Nonsense. Otherwise religious folks wouldn't have atheist kids or vice versa, or kids who switch religions.

Re: Pthalates and bromides.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it's indoctrinated, which is worse. Random mutation might save you from genetics, but we can teach things to a fault.

Re:Is this a bad thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

OMG. Surely you posted this as sarcasm?

happened to me, unfortunately

[netsavior]

between my first kid and my unplanned last kid, my counts halved... after I had 2 vasectomies. The first failed... the second "succeeded" only to fail 3 years later. Now I am up to about half my initial count. Woo.

Re: happened to me, unfortunately

[Anonymous Coward]

So what are you saying? That even after a vasectomy, with minuscule sperm count, one of those buggers managed to get through and get your wife pregers?

Re: happened to me, unfortunately

[geek]

More likely it was the neighbor

Re: happened to me, unfortunately

[Neuroelectronic]

No, the doctor giving him his counts.

Re:happened to me, unfortunately

[RockDoctor]

after I had 2 vasectomies. The first failed..

Protocol here is to (1) cauterise both ends of the severed vasa, and (2) perform a sperm count 3 months after operation, before authorising the cessation of the contraception already in use.

the second "succeeded" only to fail 3 years later.

That strongly suggests that your practitioner wasn't using any sort of cauterisation, which does have a significant failure rate. If you informed the second practitioner of the failed first vasectomy (they'd have seen the scars anyway), then not performing the cauterisation step is pretty well down the road to malpractice. Normally, I'm not one for promoting "sue the doctor" at any event, but in this case it does strike me as being a pretty basic failure.

In the UK, using the [cut, remove cm-length, cauterise] protocol, spontaneous reconnection rates are under 1%, which would suggest you're a 1-in-10,000 event. If your practitioners are using a proven protocol, and doing it properly.

Re: happened to me, unfortunately

[RockDoctor]

Doctors report counts performed at external labs. If they're not, then they are the external lab for hundreds of other practitioners, and have several dozen staff doing sperm counts. (There were 5 sperm counting centres in the UK when I had my vasectomy, so I'd estimate 30 or so in the US. Maybe one per county/ State.) Personally, I just wanked into the pot (~3 months after snipping, per instructions), sealed it, put it into the packaging, dropped it into the post, and got the computer-generated letter a couple of weeks later. Probably not touched by human hands in the process. When I went for a re-test (to confirm my sterility before getting married), I had been in correspondence with the testing organisation beforehand, and got a human dictated and signed certificate of sterility.

So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

One sperm is enough, doesn't matter if it's 100 or 50 million.

Re:So what?

[Ol Olsoc]

One sperm is enough, doesn't matter if it's 100 or 50 million.

You flunked health class and sex ed, eh?

Re: So what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

He is correct, or haven't you noticed that nobody is claiming that the conception rate has plummeted?

Re: So what?

[arth1]

I think contraceptives and family planning has something to do with it. These days, women get to decide when and with whom to have children. Producing an overwhelming number of sperm to outcompete other males' sperm seems to have little to no reward these days. Even if the lady has an affair, she's most likely going to be protected, so there's no gain from the male evolutionary perspective.
So those with low sperm count are just as likely to become fathers, and their genes just as likely to be propagated. In only one generation, the effect should start being observable, and in two generations enough to not be individual variations. The timing seems near perfect.
Now what we need is a sperm count compared to biological fathers. if there's a strong correlation, but still an overall decline, this is far more likely to be genetic than environmental, although a combination is not out of the question.

Re: So what?

[sexconker]

One sperm is not enough, unless you're making a test tube baby.
In the normal method, you need plenty of sperm to reach the egg and smash down the gates before a single sperm can get inside.

Re: So what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

You missed the important part, no doubt on purpose: it doesn't matter if it is 50 or 100 million.

Re: So what?

[DontBeAMoran]

It does depend on how much STR and DEF the egg has.

Re: So what?

[Ol Olsoc]

He is correct, or haven't you noticed that nobody is claiming that the conception rate has plummeted?

The number of sperm released in ejaculate is directly related to fertility. There is a process called the acrosome reaction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

While only one sperm performs the actual fertilization, it requires a lot more of them to prepare the egg.

Not happening without those other sperm.

Re: So what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

No it doesn't.

Re: So what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

Again, no change in birth rate proves you are wrong.

Re: So what?

[Ol Olsoc]

You missed the important part, no doubt on purpose: it doesn't matter if it is 50 or 100 million.

SRSLY? Just out of curiosity, are you a pediatrician or OB/GYN and if so - or even if not so, give me the cites to illustrate that which you are so certain of. The idea that a male producing half of the sperm of another especially 50 million per ejaculate is as fertile goes against everything I have been taught and experienced. Your expertise in this matter is requested.

Thank you in advance for providing this information. Here is something that I know, and am awaiting for your debunking of the Mayo Clinic http://www.mayoclinic.org/dise...

39 million sperm per ejaculate is considered as a low sperm count. the present day average of 50 million is getting close, and will perhaps reach that level in the future. Then again, I believe that you actually think that if a male produces even one sperm, the woman will beome pregnant. I'll respectfully ask for the debunking of the acrosome reaction in whic many sperm attach them selves to the zona pellucida and create enzymes that allow the one sperm that does the actual insemination to pierce the egg and finish the fertilization process.

Re: So what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

Nice weasel attempt, but all you have to do to prove your claim is correct is cite the plummet in conception rates. You don't need paragraphs of misdirection which any idiot can see through, just one simple link to the stats that show a significant drop. I trust we won't hear from you again, unless of course you can find a link at Brietbart. :^)

Re: So what?

[misexistentialist]

Don't think anyone measures conceptions per creampie. Quality of spawn also seems to be ignored

Re: So what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

Not a guy who understands statistics I see.

Re: So what?

[Ol Olsoc]

Again, no change in birth rate proves you are wrong.

One of the things I learned a long time ago was that arguing with people like you is pointless. I gave citations, and you just sit there and take an unrelated point and bandy it about

If you actually have the balls, take my citations and prove me and places like the Mayo clinic wrong.

Re: So what?

[Ol Olsoc]

Nice weasel attempt, but all you have to do to prove your claim is correct is cite the plummet in conception rates.

Can you show me where I claimed the conception rates have plummeted?

But let's talk about conception rates since you fixate on it. We'll ignore that it isn't used too often in humans, it seems to be of maximum interest in bovines.

In humans the term pregnancy rate is used. It is also used a lot for IVF, which has a much lesser success rate than normal sex, so it's a bad term overall, and not a very good measure of sperm count and it's relationship to pregnancy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Regardless to try to relate to your conception rate, any number we might come up with is difficult, especially in light of say, the USA's fertility rate hivering at just around replacement rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

So are couples using birth control? Is age a factor? This is unclear, and there are political issues as well. Some articles about this, but not conclusive and hard to dig numbers out of, and I'm certain that they are hedging their bet. There is no doubt that most research on male infertility is mostly about women, as strange as that seems.

But without your trying to wiggle out of this, if you have an issue with the Mayo clinic's definition of male infertility, and with the US fertility rate, and with the sperm count heading toward that definition, then argue with them.

I've given an internet troll neough of my time.

Re: So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it's called confirmation bias. I believe it's a pretty good argument against 'call out' culture which is promoted by some, but I could be wrong.

Re: So what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

Dear dumbfuck. You are the one who said that a drop from 100 to 50 Million would have a significant effect on birth rates. It is up to you to show that and you didn't since you can't since it is untrue. What you have learned is "don't pick an intellectual battle with someone far smarter than you are, or you will lose, as quoting a Wikipedia article won't count as proof of your easily refuted claim" and you know it. Off you go again little boy ...

Re: So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

In only one generation, the effect should start being observable, and in two generations enough to not be individual variations.

Found someone who doesn't understand at all how evolution works.

Re: So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

First of all, it's painfully obvious that you've never actually had sex. Even a prostitute wouldn't put up with your attitude. So this whole topic is why over your head. The only reason you decided to comment on this particular submission was to troll those you secretly envy. Secondly, Wikipedia relies on citations. If you have better ones, add them to Wikipedia and make a useful contribution for once in your pathetic life.

Re: So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

> arguing with people like you is pointless.

You have not, apparently, learned that.

Re: So what?

[arth1]

In only one generation, the effect should start being observable, and in two generations enough to not be individual variations.

Found someone who doesn't understand at all how evolution works.

That would be you, then?

If a pressure disappears, those with genes that code for an individual's resistance to that pressure no longer reap an evolutionary benefit. Those who lack what was a genetic advantage will be just as likely to pass on their genes without that advantage. And if the gene resisting the removed pressure has a cost, even a small one, it will be selected against. Cave fish lose their eyes, because the cost of having eyes is non-zero.

For the first generation after the pressure goes away, you can tell that there is a change. More individuals with the genes have offspring. But at that point, the mutation (or lack of a mutation) is just passed on; you can only measure the impact on individuals themselves. The next generation, you can measure the impact on the population, i.e. the genes spreading, and not just being passed on.

The belief that evolution only works over long time scales is invalid and a sure sign that someone doesn't understand evolution. The effects are immediate, and cumulative. When the effects of a mutation are small, spreading takes longer, just like a low interest rate takes longer to generate wealth. When the effects of a mutation are larger, it takes a surprisingly short time. Studies on finches, cichlids and fruit flies show rather radical changes happening within very few generations when pressures change. Remove a predator, and the genes that increase the odds of surviving that predator no longer gives an advantage. When a predator is removed, fish that cannot react and swim faster than the predator (or their brethren) now survive to breeding age, which has an immediate and measurable impact. Next generation, you can see the genes for being slower starting to spread as the advantage of lower metabolic burn rate starts paying out on the interest rate. It only takes one generation to see the effect, and only two to observe the spread. It may still take a long time before a genetic change becomes ubiquitous, but it's very quickly measurable if you know what to look for.

Re: So what?

[Ol Olsoc]

> arguing with people like you is pointless.

You have not, apparently, learned that.

Then again, if I can irritate the guy, that's a plus.

Re: So what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

Why would it irritate me to watch you make a fool of yourself?

Re: So what?

[RockDoctor]

By and smash down the gates, I think sexconker means "release enough hormones in and around the egg to cause the egg to thin and weaken the extra-cellular mucous coating which prevents most of the sperm reaching the cell membrane. This mechanism has to be fairly fast acting, as once the proverbial "single wriggler" gets to penetrate the mucous AND the cell wall, then the cell needs to thicken the cell wall and mucous barrier very fast (seconds), or it ends up with two sperm in the egg, and a literal recipe for wasted resources.

Those millions of non-penetrating sperm do have an effect, by eroding the mucous layer.

Re: So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

We know you're irritated, but not by anyone but yourself. You know you're a deeply unhappy asshole. Rather than seek therapy either out of pride or lack of funds, you come to Slashdot to troll.

Re: So what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

Don't quit your day job as a janitor to go to get into psychology :^)

Re: So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope. I'm a happily employed teacher. But your trolling is well known on Slashdot. Regular users know you have a problem, but few of them know how to push your buttons like me. So, tell us. Why are you so unhappy? You ever feel like James Holmes?

Re: So what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

Yeah ... trolls always have excellent karma. You just don't get it. I have nothing to be unhappy about. True, my life would be better with far less idiots like you in the world, but if you look at my SlashID number and have even half a brain then even you are smart enough to figure out you aren't the first loser troll I've ever had fun laughing at.

Yes.

[intellitech]

Sarcasm / trollface intended.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait - why is it actually bad ?

We want less kids, no?

Re: Yes.

[Ol Olsoc]

Wait - why is it actually bad ?

We want less kids, no?

One does not follow the other. Testosterone is a major necessity for males, and is used in much more than sperm production.

So while it is a good idea to not breed like bunnies, only apocalyptic misandrysts can be happy about this.

Re: Yes.

[Zero__Kelvin]

Well it would be nice if we had less that grew up to be the type of person who can't figure out that only one is required so this doesn't affect ability to conceive.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, we want *fewer* kids.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

We definitely want less kids like you !

Fair correction though.

Re: Yes.

[BarbaraHudson]

Wrong, more than one sperm is required. The sperm spin the egg to cause the equatorial region to thin out enough for one to penetrate.

Re: Yes.

[Zero__Kelvin]

A ... finally an expert!

Re: Yes.

[rtb61]

You comment makes not much sense. Infertile men, means neither females nor males are produced. Let's be honest men not having to sacrifice them selves to have children makes life a whole lot easier for men. They'll end up living in a home they own far sooner and they will own it for the rest of their lives if they want to. If fact the only way men gain substantive control over their own lives, is to remain single and non-reproductive, otherwise they must sacrifice a substantive portion of their lives for a 2 in 5 chance of improving it versus a 3 in 5 chance of making it much worse, much, much, worse. Being an infertile slacker, meh, who gives a fuck (heh, heh).

The weirdness of the patriarchy, that men have a right to sex with females whether or not they impregnate them is tied to those at the top of patriarchy retaining their power so that they can abuse all others men and women and of no real benefit for the majority of people who just get trapped in relationships that are made dysfunctional by disturbed psychopathic patriarch design and distortion caused by main stream media and content created by narcissists and psychopaths that distort the rest of society to align with their mentally disturbed state. Keep in mind fertility does not relate to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and how many people would use an inhaler that provided a drug which simulated the affect and how often would they use it, keep in mind that drug would be mimicking the drugs your own brain produces to motivate you to do, what in modern society is not really in your best interests to do.

More important question, are men with lower sperm counts more of less happy than men with higher sperm counts.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

The weirdness of the patriarchy, that men have a right to sex with females whether or not they impregnate them is tied to those at the top of patriarchy retaining their power so that they can abuse all others men and women and of no real benefit for the majority of people who just get trapped in relationships that are made dysfunctional by disturbed psychopathic patriarch design and distortion caused by main stream media and content created by narcissists and psychopaths that distort the rest of society to align with their mentally disturbed state.

Sir, have you been drinking? -PCP

Re: Yes.

[Ol Olsoc]

More important question, are men with lower sperm counts more of less happy than men with higher sperm counts.

Weogh! That was a hard to parse as a Sarah Palin speech, so I'll just hit on the basics.

Your noting that a lot of men avoiding having children is part of another trend Men are becoming less interested in marriage, and oddly, women are becoming more interested than a few years back. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... And given some other trends, the numbers might decrease yet more. Certainly given that college campuses are trending a 10 percent gape between female and male and growing, http://www.pewresearch.org/fac... there wil be a lot of educated women - who probably do not want to marry lesser educated men - who are going to have an issue with marriage and reproducing.

There might be some relationship between lower testosterone levels and men dropping out of society and marriage and children - I don't know enough to make that presumption. Generally when you ask those men who choose to opt out, thier ansers tend to be that marriage and relationships are just not a good deal for men. They do make an argument that is fairly convincing and rational. But once we get into social matters it is hard to get definitive causes and effects.

Re: Yes.

[0100010001010011]

Shit /r/RedPill and /r/MGTOW are leaking.

Re: Yes.

[religionofpeas]

One does not follow the other. Testosterone is a major necessity for males, and is used in much more than sperm production.

TFA doesn't mention testosterone being down.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

found the gynocentrist.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's face it, women do all the hard work creating new humans.

Re: Yes.

[AmiMoJo]

Women went off marriage because it was a crappy deal for them. The strong expectation was to give up their career, become the main care giver for the kids. As that changed and marriage got more compatible with ideas of gender equality, they started showing more interest again.

I don't agree that there are convincing or rational arguments that marriage is a bad deal for men. Okay, there are some legal issues in some places, but the same thing is true for women and has always been (e.g. spousal rape laws, unequal rights to request divorce). What has changed is that men now have greater responsibility and less control in marriage, and some men don't like that.

One of the most common arguments is about financial responsibilities after divorce. Others are complaints about women no longer having to "obey" their husbands (that actually came up in court in the UK a few years ago - a juror asked if a wife's lie could be excused as following her old fashioned marriage vows), or fulfil traditional wife roles. And I think a lot of people just rush into marriage too quickly and then decide they don't want to be with that person, but already have kids and a shared life (house, property, bank account) that is hard to unravel. They feel jilted and angry that they can't just walk away when all the unreasonable behaviour was on their partner's side.

As for educated women not wanting to marry less educated men... To the extent that it does happen, it is a problem, I agree, but a relatively minor one in the scheme of things.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Women went off marriage because it was a crappy deal for them. The strong expectation was to give up their career, become the main care giver for the kids.

Wait a second. You are making an assumption that every women will marriage and are expected to have kids, and that is the expectation from men. Having kids is not necessary to be a "crappy deal" for women but rather another path of happiness because it is also their decision to choose which path of happiness they want to go through. Do you believe that majority of women choose to be care givers for their kids in the first place because they have to or are expected? I don't believe so. They choose the path because they want to, and it is a kind happiness they want. Also, nowadays, having kids are both men and women decision, not only men as in the past.

One of the most common arguments is about financial responsibilities after divorce.

When 2 people are in love, they do NOT expect a divorce. If one or both of them are thinking about divorcing while dating (or in a relationship), then they are not "in love" and very likely end the relationship before marriage. So no, this should not be included as a reason for "bad marriage deal" for men. Marriage is similar to a mile stone in lives of 2 people who are in love (at least up until marriage). The state of lives for both people can be changed after marriage but it belongs to a different discussion.

Re: Yes.

[Ol Olsoc]

One does not follow the other. Testosterone is a major necessity for males, and is used in much more than sperm production.

TFA doesn't mention testosterone being down.

Ol Olsoc does. https://www.healio.com/endocri...

http://www.webmd.com/men/news/... http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/d...

A low Testosterone level in a male decreases sperm count. In on of those weird twists of fate, supplementing testosterone will lower it even further. http://www.webmd.com/men/featu... So one of the keys to healthy sperm production is to ensure the body is producing it's very own testosterone, not via creams or injections.

Is the trend of lower testosterone levels responsible for the trend of lower sperm count? Correlation is not causation, but even if it were some other cause, that cause would be lowering testosterone levels at the same time.

And my original posting which notes that males are being inundated with phytoestrogens in the west, is not crackpot-ism. Even the NIH is getting involved. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... It is worth noting that in opposition to the politico-economic interests demanding that phyto-estrogens be completely safe for males, they note :

"Further investigation is needed before a firm conclusion can be drawn. In the meantime, caution would suggest that perinatal phyto-oestrogen exposure, such as that found in infants feeding on soy-based formula, should be avoided.

And let us not forget all of the estrogen mimics like Bisphenol-A, Phthalates, Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and beef growth hormones. These chemicals have been and many are still used

So really, it doesn't matter if TFA doesn't mention Testosterone level. Testosterone levels are relevant to Sperm count, and Testosterone levels are also related to estrogen loads. Conjecture on that is a completely valid path of discussion. Sperm count is down, and males are exposed to a lot of chemicals that are proven to do just that. Making discussion that speaks to these facts being somehow off limits doesn't make a lot of sense.

Re: Yes.

[Ol Olsoc]

I don't agree that there are convincing or rational arguments that marriage is a bad deal for men. Okay, there are some legal issues in some places,

You can invalidate my arguments as irrational - which is why I don't find it compelling or useful to discuss anything with you - you have your mind made up and are not open to change.

But in the end, it really doesn't matter what you think, or what I think. Male interest in marriage, children and relationships is eroding, and eroding quickly. I wonder though, is the way to get more men interested in marriage to yell at them about how immature and selfish they are? Shaming is starting to not work any more. It is becoming entrenched in the male psyche that there are unpleasant people who just like to yell at them, and that avoidance is the best tactic. That's the real problem. When all the problems are the man's fault, we can just add this to the long list.

I think however that you and I should be able to find some common ground, that these immature and selfish men removing themselves from the relationship and reproduction pool should be seen as a positive by women, who will then be able to concentrate on all the worthy men who are left.

Re: Yes.

[Ol Olsoc]

Also, nowadays, having kids are both men and women decision, not only men as in the past.

Where on earth did you get the idea that only men made that decision in the past. My mother told me once of her deliberate action to get pregnant so my father would marry her. Obviously, he kinda knew what they were doing, but she planned in depth the timing. Something similar happened with my son and his high school girlfriend. Fortunately she didn't become pregnant.

One of the most common arguments is about financial responsibilities after divorce.

When 2 people are in love, they do NOT expect a divorce. If one or both of them are thinking about divorcing while dating (or in a relationship), then they are not "in love" and very likely end the relationship before marriage.

I wonder. My wife and I planned many of these things out. We made certain she had her own credit rating, and all of the financial issues that can occur upon divorce or spousal death.

If people are so head over heels in love that they can't have rational discussions, perhaps that is shown in the divorce rate. Finances, personalities, all manner of things need to be taken into account.

For the record, we've been married 40 years.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like a great time to return to polygamy. Multiple highly educated woman can marry the few highly educated men while those less educated and mostly self centered can cull their own bloodlines. Winner for humanity as a species.

Re: Yes.

[AmiMoJo]

You can invalidate my arguments as irrational

I didn't imply your arguments are irrational. There are many other ways they can be wrong ;-)

I wonder though, is the way to get more men interested in marriage to yell at them about how immature and selfish they are?

Probably not... It would be better to give marriage a clearer definition, via education. If men, and women for that matter, understood it better and if they could see the value they get from it, they might be more inclined to go for it, and also to avoid it when it's not a good idea.

I think a lot of people now see less formal relationships as equally good as marriage. In some ways they are, in others... Well, I tend to think of marriage as a standard contract covering stuff like inheritance, which is clearly useful to have.

I wonder though, is the way to get more men interested in marriage to yell at them about how immature and selfish they are?

Who are these people, and where are they?

I guess it's true that when comparing a modern marriage to a traditional one, it's been the men that had to moderate their behaviour a lot more than the women. That's just an unavoidable consequence of historic norms. But that's a long way from what you describe.

I think however that you and I should be able to find some common ground, that these immature and selfish men removing themselves from the relationship and reproduction pool should be seen as a positive by women, who will then be able to concentrate on all the worthy men who are left.

Hmm, I'd rather find some way to communicate with those guys so that they can form happy relationships.

Re: Yes.

[AmiMoJo]

To clarify, and I almost wrote this in the original post, I don't imagine all or even most women think that way. Just enough to cause the drop in interest we have seen reported by surveys. Some women are very happy to be full time parents, and it's a great choice if you are lucky enough to be able to make it. But enough don't want to give up a career or independence to affect the numbers.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

As for educated women not wanting to marry less educated men... To the extent that it does happen, it is a problem, I agree, but a relatively minor one in the scheme of things.

It's always been a general tendency for women to aim higher than their own status. A woman who only graduated high school will settle for a dude who never went to college if he has a good trade and she'll be happy enough with a guy who has a bachelors degree and uses it. Meanwhile a woman who has a bachelors degree now won't settle for a dude who isn't a PhD and a woman who has a PhD well...

You see it all the time with celebrities, famous men will date and marry women who are "nobodies" but famous women always have to have a man who is at least as famous as herself.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

*eggspert
FTFY

Re: Yes.

[rtb61]

There is a profound difference between protesting the unfairness of marriage of what ever the sex or sexes in what ever combination or numbers and just being a slacker http://www.urbandictionary.com.... I give not one crap how bad the marriage partnership deal is for men, I am just a slacker and choose not to play a game that in all honesty does not really suit slackers, well, at least not this slacker.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is one man's take on things:

I was married. In the divorce proceedings it was decided that the equitable thing to do was to give her the apartment and its entire contents - even my clothing - both vehicles, the entire bank account ...in short, everything. I was allowed the clothes I was wearing, the money in my pocket and all of the family debt.

I wanted to challenge paternity since it was beyond obvious that she had cheated on me, not once, but many times (many more than I even care to know about, it turns out).

I was told I could challenge paternity but it would do no good since I had already accepted responsibility for the kids previously - when I did not know I was lied to and cheated on.

So she cheats and she gets everything and I get to pay her to raise two kids who aren't mine... because that's only fair.

Women are protected in the US, to the detriment of men in general. I owe enough child support that if it was money in my hand I could pay cash, in full and by a 3 bedroom home with it, on the spot.

I have been unable to get the amount reduced. One child is now 22 and the state finally sent paperwork saying that the child support might end, but only if certain criteria are met and the ex agrees. I get almost no say in the matter. (I can state I do not think the child should get child support -by checking the "No" box- or I can state the reason(s) I think it should continue in the space provided.

Is there any reason I should think that marriage, from a man's perspective, is not a good idea?

The laws are unfair, in different ways, to BOTH sides. It ALL needs to be fixed. Husbands should not have a legal "out" regarding spousal rape and wives should not be allowed to profit from infidelity.

Re: Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not nearly as knowledgeable regarding the science as you appear to be but there is something here that even the uneducated should be able to grasp.

Some girls, at very young ages, are developing adult like physical attributes in, seemingly, increasing numbers. This has already been a topic of discussion many times in recent years. People have been trying to figure out the cause. People blame soy, plastics, hormones in the water, hormones in our meat, pesticides, etc.

Should it come as a shock that something that would cause girls to mature early would also impact males?

I'm asking, I don't know. But it seems like one way to study the problem is too ask ourselves, "...if girls are needing training bras earlier and earlier (for example) what changes are occurring in boys in the same age group?"

Re: Yes.

[Ol Olsoc]

Should it come as a shock that something that would cause girls to mature early would also impact males?

I'm asking, I don't know.

Yes is the short answerThe precocious puberty issue isn't conclusive, some of this could be related to the weight and age of the girl, and since people in general are getting heavier, this could have an effect on menarche. But something appears amiss. I looked at my high school yearbook from the 1970's, and especially the 18 year old young ladies looked like 13 year old girls today. Hypersexualization and too much makeup is one thing, but good grief, somthing is amiss. That's just an observation. Now for some scary stuff. The most common birth defect in males born today is Cryptorchidism and hypospadias. Essentially that the penis doesn't form correctly. The Urethra exits where it shouldn't. Specifically there is a gene problem, but the cause is very likely chemical.

http://www.loe.org/shows/segme... is a script from a radio show with some interesting information.

We are getting dosed with stuff, and no doubt.

Re:Is this a bad thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not a problem for you, tinkerbelle.

Due to longer work hours?

[Anonymous Coward]

My father and both grandfathers always got a full week off each year. I haven't had an entire week off since graduating from college in 1986. Also, they only worked a little over forty hours a week. Other than around Christmas, I don't think I've ever worked that little in any week of my adult life. It takes its toll.

Re:Due to longer work hours?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think I've ever worked that little in any week of my adult life. It takes its toll.

Where are you incarcerated ?

Because if you are not in prison, what you do with your life is up to you and no one else. The freedom you seem to imagine you do not have is gone because you GAVE IT AWAY. And for what ? A newer car ? A bigger house ? A larger TV ?

You might still have time to smarten up and quit being a slave. Or you might just continue being a slave. But it's no one else's fault but yours.

Re: Due to longer work hours?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's all well and good, but depending where you live, the "luxury" might be continuing to have a roof over your head.

I moved recently because it was taking every penny I made to sustain a modest home. Moved to a less expensive jurisdiction. Not everyone can do the same.

Re:Due to longer work hours?

[Anonymous Coward]

Long vacations like that are a thing of the past. Stress must be at least partially responsible for this.

Re:Due to longer work hours?

[Anonymous Coward]

My father and grandfather think I'm lazy for not getting to work before 10am. When you work seven days a weeks and have to usually work until midnight, something's got to give. Plus, most of our employees are in India so nearly everyone in my office has to be at work when they start their day.

Re: Due to longer work hours?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah fuck working people! YEAH! /s

Living off your parents is so much better and they love you for it

Re: Due to longer work hours?

[Anonymous Coward]

That was my thought.

Last time I heard a similar statement, it came from my a relative who was living off of some of my other relatives. It all came crashing down though not long after she made that statement. Now she works 60 hours a week minimum, just to live in a tiny-ass shoddy as heck apartment. Funny how that works.

Captcha: losers

Re:Due to longer work hours?

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you a programmer working on a legacy system? It sounds like that. Where I've worked the past five years, I'm still the new guy, so I can take time off. I've already taken four days off so far this year. The guys that have all been here 18+ years since we first wrote our software can't take time off since we can't replace them. There's just not enough programmers on the market, especially ones that are willing to stick with something complex and old that takes a year+ to get up to speed on. My first code review that didn't require changes was just before my four year anniversary.

Also, I work in a regulated industry, so we have hard deadlines we must meet. Usually we have to get the next year's changes in the hands of customers by Oct 1, so that means no summer time off for most people. Then there's usually undefined, poorly defined or last minute changed regulations which means no time off during December for anyone. It's hard when congress and bureaucrats keep making changes or worse make changes that are poorly defined.

Re: Due to longer work hours?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're all idiots. There's no one that can replace them so they can't take time off ? Just go take 4 weeks off - what will they do ? Replace you ?

Don't martyr yourself for no reason.

Posting from second multi month vacation in the space of a few years. The first vacation was 20 months. We'll see how this one goes.

Re: Due to longer work hours?

[DontBeAMoran]

Hello Dave,

don't bother coming back after your vacation.

Signed,
your boss.

Re:Due to longer work hours?

[Anonymous Coward]

One full week off in a year is not a long vacation by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, not getting a week or two off per year sounds like as good an argument as any for forming a union to fight for basic worker rights.

Re: Due to longer work hours?

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd be better off. It's just a job. You only have one life.

Plastics?

[Anonymous Coward]

Plastic drinking containers, microplastics in the water supply

Re:Plastics?

[crunchygranola]

This is a likely hypothesis - ubiquitous exposure to trace level synthetic chemicals. Many synthetic chemicals have shown estrogenic effects (including a number of plastic ingredients), and cumulative exposure to tiny quantities may be driving this. It is difficult to test though - the exposure is everywhere, and effects may be delayed many years. Is it prenatal exposure, childhood exposure, adult exposure, all of the above?

Re:Plastics?

[DontBeAMoran]

Don't forget plastic in our food.

Missing a key statistic: conception rate

[Anonymous Coward]

This is hype news. Like Ehrlich and his Population Bomb but now it is the Population Unbomb. Nature massively overcompensated with millions of sperm and only ONE is needed for conception.
Http://www.winfertility.com/sperm-count-pregnancy-rates

Re:Missing a key statistic: conception rate

[BarbaraHudson]

The theory is that with more women who are educated, birth rates go down. This doesn't hold true in much of Africa. After an initial decline from 6 to 4.5, birth rates aren't following historic trends elsewhere.

And they've got a LOT of people. More than twice as many as all North America. More than all the Americas. Barely a bit less than China. They're going to surpass both China and India soon enough.

Re:Missing a key statistic: conception rate

[OneoFamillion]

I recently found a series of Yale lectures on population growth on Youtube, they are a bit repetitive at times but I still highly recommend them to anyone interested in such matters (and frankly, we all should be.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:Missing a key statistic: conception rate

[Anonymous Coward]

The theory is that with more women who are educated, birth rates go down. This doesn't hold true in much of Africa.

It is a waste of time trying to educate a continent of 70 IQ people.

Re:Missing a key statistic: conception rate

[RockDoctor]

The theory is that with more women who are educated, birth rates go down. This doesn't hold true in much of Africa. After an initial decline from 6 to 4.5, birth rates aren't following historic trends elsewhere.

You're forgetting that average eduction standards in much of Africa have not improved - particularly for females - for decades. Much of that drop in fertiity can be ascribed to a single educational fact : "with these vaccines, the chances of a particular child dieing in infancy has dropped from ~50% to ~25%". Once that fact was absorbed (observable in every village where it was relevant), birth rates decreased, as you say.

The effect of slowly improving education is a much slower burn. It has been faster in China (full-blown socialism) and India (significant national free-to-use health services). Patchier in South America and ASEAN(-I) countries, because more varied countries, but generally working. Which is why Africa is suffering a severe population boom (with considerable inter-country variations).

Re:Missing a key statistic: conception rate

[BarbaraHudson]

The theory is that with more women who are educated, birth rates go down. This doesn't hold true in much of Africa.

It is a waste of time trying to educate a continent of 70 IQ people.

Not true. While every generation's IQ tests are normalized to 100 being average, each generation is turning out to be able to obtain higher non-normalized scores than the previous generation. In other words, your forbearers would probably have scored well below today's average. BTW, racism is stupid - witness Trump.

blame creimer

[Anonymous Coward]

Blame creimer for jacking it when he was 7 years old. The rest of us are traumatized since he made us watch.

Men are turning into girly bitches

[Anonymous Coward]

Millennials have this really disgusting complexion,all pale and ruddy like a pregnant fat girl from Topeka. They also these weird oblong squidward-potato features. When they grow their "beard" it comes out looking like some FTM transssexual, all potato face and effeminate. Honestly it's been a long time since such schlubby, faggy-looking creatures have roamed the planet, with their stunted malformed XXY genitals. Really disgusting, TBH.

Re:Men are turning into girly bitches

[Anonymous Coward]

Millennials have this really disgusting complexion ...

I stab the tires on their fixed gear bicycles or smash the windows of their Prius if they drive one.

It's fun to bring destruction down on these worthless pieces of effeminate trash, you should try it !

Re:Men are turning into girly bitches

[Applehu Akbar]

"Millennials have this really disgusting complexion"

Maybe, but you can't actually tell because of their tats.

Re:Men are turning into girly bitches

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw a millennial fall to his death at the mall trying to look cool. It was so awesome to see his body all crumpled and dying. He looked like a wrecked faggot. I wanted to ask him how it felt to die for being so stupid, but there were too many ppl around. And he died pretty fast

Re:Men are turning into girly bitches

[Anonymous Coward]

They can't hide their dumpy, pear-shaped body tho.

Numbers game

[Anonymous Coward]

... a decline of 52.4% ...

Phyto-estrogens, found in a number of meat/milk substitutes, have been blamed for years but no-one is studying the effect of these ingredients.

... the concentration of sperm ...

Impregnation is a numbers game: So the sperm needs to have the quantity to get through the minefield that is the female reproductive system and deliver a few healthy spermatozoa (most aren't, numbers) to the ovum. That's usually been regarded as 200 million sperm as a blanket assumption. That assumption can be incorrect if the female system has also evolved to be less toxic to sperm.

Hahahahaha & a question... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: What you said's funny enough but WHY are you constantly crapping on creimer for? Seriously. Why??

* I've "had it out" w/ him before but he's not all that bad really so I have to ask WHY you're constantly ribbing on him for... yes, I've stuck up for him as well once vs. your ribbing (yes, probably was you).

Another e.g. - I see you say how "fat" he is etc. - do you KNOW that for a fact or are you projecting your own issues onto him? Don't take offense to that. I'm curious. Folks have a habit of that (think about it - I call you, say, "fag" - but you KNOW you're not so it 'bounces off you' but it'd PROJECT what hurts me or bothers me about myself...)).

(I have a few "troll fans" like you are to creimer but I know WHY they do it to me & WHO most of them are as far as "registered 'luser'" names & some in REAL life as to who they are, where they live, etc. (they're harmless & butthurt over me blowing them away on tech issues they must've thought they were 'all-knowing God' in & I proved otherwise...)).

Yes, it's juvenile what you said but it DID make me laugh... lol!

APK

P.S.=> Sometimes what you say is quite funny but you could put anyone's name in for his (caught your "large unknown object in space" the other day being his ebooks, lol - that was pretty funny too imo)... apk

Re:Hahahahaha & a question... apk

[__aaclcg7560]

Another e.g. - I see you say how "fat" he is etc. - do you KNOW that for a fact or are you projecting your own issues onto him?

From the Slashdot page on my website.

There are 10 kinds of people on Slashdot.

Those who see my picture, go back to Slashdot and leave a comment, "You're a fat retard."

And everyone else.

https://www.cdreimer.com/slashdot.html

Re:Hahahahaha & a question... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

" do you KNOW that for a fact "

It's trivially easy to find pictures of him all over the place. There's one in particular that's so heart-breaking that even I, who has been slinging insults at him for weeks (in jest), can't bring myself to post it.

It's the face of a sad, defeated, abused, broken man. Combined with his posting here and how he is completely open about his virginity, it's just too much.

Re:Hahahahaha & a question... apk

[DontBeAMoran]

You're a fat retard and everyone else.

Did I do that correctly?

Re: Hahahahaha & a question... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you stopped raping your neighbor's goats yet?

Re: Hahahahaha & a question... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Why? You wanna go next?

Gorky 17

[Anonymous Coward]

This reminds me of the sudden swerve sequel-hook plot from the end of Gorky 17/Odium! This is how the human race ends...

Another Crisis? The end of humanity?

[bobbied]

Ozone hole...

Global Cooling..

Global warming..

Climate Change...

Now this????

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that mankind isn't going to meet it's end because of this.... Maybe a nuclear winter will do it, but not this..

Re:Is this a bad thing?

[skids]

It is. But it just means we have to make up the quota with more orgasms.

Re:Is this a bad thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

The only thing that comes to mind is the number of bodies that are expendable in a war. The side with the most wins.

Re:My offer to help

[starblazer]

I also speak french. Oui!

Well duh...

[The Grim Reefer]

Bruce Lee died in 1973, Robert Shaw -1978, John Wayne - 1979, Steve McQueen -1980, Yul Brynner and Orson Wells - 1985, Lee Marvin - 1987, Tupac -1996, Charles Bronson and Jonny Cash in 2003. When Clint Eastwood and Chuck Norris go it's going to drop to zero.

Re: Well duh...

[Zero__Kelvin]

Those men don't increase the sperm count for most of us ... not that we are judging you.

Re: Well duh...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wake the fuck up. Chuck Norris alone raised he sperm count in the USA by 3%.

Re: Well duh...

[Anonymous Coward]

Chuck Norris needs only a single sperm to impregnate the entire planet.

Re:Well duh...

[iggymanz]

Actually Chuck Norris died 10 years ago, but the Grim Reaper shits vertebrae at the mere thought of coming to get him.

Anyone care to share an SA?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've had quite a few semen analysis over the past 1.5 years. *sigh* fertility study and other stuff. My morph is low therefore my count of "normal", based on WHO standards, is low.

Here's my average SA:
period = one month samples over 1.5 years
count per ml (avg) = 35 M
volume (avg) = 4.1 ml
morphology (avg) = 2% normal forms
progressive Motility (avg) = 30%
hot baths = No
bicycle = No
race = Caucasian
weight = 73.4 kg
age = 41 yrs

Re:Anyone care to share an SA?

[Anonymous Coward]

Forgot.
height = 1.7m

Re:Anyone care to share an SA?

[RockDoctor]

morphology (avg) = 2% normal forms

progressive Motility (avg) = 30%

What are the normal and SD for those parameters? (The subject is obviously of concern to you but not me. Childfree by choice.)

Ripper was right!

[Rollgunner]

The communist plot to dilute our precious bodily fluids has succeeded !

Re:Ripper was right!

[Black.Shuck]

Joke's on them. We'll just produce twice as much!

Re:My offer to help

[Anonymous Coward]

I got asked by a lesbian couple for a sperm donation a few years back. I thought that meant I would get to have sex with them, as they were very attractive, but it turns they just want you to jack into a cup. I COULD DO THAT AT HOME!

LOL captcha = seeder

and for non-western men?

[shoor]

What's been happening with them?

Re:and for non-western men?

[Anonymous Coward]

Their sperm counts are remaining steady.

Re:and for non-western men?

[Anonymous Coward]

They're taking over the gene pool obviously.

Re:and for non-western men?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's been happening with them?

Presumably they're getting ready to become the next generation of western men?

Re: Is this a bad thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's probably because you're blind from all that masterbation

Not in summary, but-

[Anonymous Coward]

Did they control for urban vs. rural populations, white collar vs. blue collar occupations (more specifically, sedentary seated jobs vs. active standing jobs), and BMI?
Urban lifestyles in themselves (crowding, chronic stress from noise, light pollution etc.) have been shown to affect testosterone production and by derivative germ cell count in some studies. Similarly, sedentary jobs and being overweight reduce test and germ cell count.

In fact, I'd be surprised if sperm counts were -not- lower across the general western population over the last few decades.
Packing people into cities and moving to a service economy is the other half of the birth rate decline coin- the first half being lowered desire for children as a social norm.

The REAL science scare story

[Anonymous Coward]

The drop in Human fertility, and the fall in the average age of puberty, in nations that suffer the 'age of plastics' and the 'age of intensive farming' is the most significant scientific story about the future of Humanity in the last one hundred years- yet gets near zero coverage. Unlike the scares organs like slashdot push daily (to promote pro-war and orwellian policies by the neo-liberals), the change in the Human condition is beyond dispute.

The main problem is that Americans live quite happily with abusive scientific experimentation on the population. Yanks love their 'built like a fridge' high-schools football players, but never question the abuse of the same hormones that bulk up cattle used on American boys. The Deep State in the USA loves that hormones in American food gets into American kids.

Then we have the Yank love of baseball- with Americans never questioning the poor parents who abuse Human Growth Hormones to artificially increase their kids height in the hope they'll become high-earning stars. In most of America a poor black mother can go to her doctor and claim that little 9-year-old Johny isn't growing fast enough. Most Yanks are so thick, they think all those tall black basketball players just grew that way 'naturally'- same as Yanks think they are anti-drug use in sports while ignoring the essential chemical methods required to build muscles in any sport where excessive muscle bulk is essential.

This abuse of chemicals in the USA makes the USA an engine of denial when it comes to the fertility and puberty disasters- for American 'scientists' argue that if you took the factors that are causing the fertility and puberty problems seriously, you'd end up having to expose the quite deliberate programs of chemical 'alteration' of American children in the name of 'sport', the military etc.

What Yank ever wonders why American children are uniquely susceptible to 'allergies' or 'attention/behavoral' problems when compared to any other nation. Yanks are made so thick by their press, they honestly think the rules of science literally change in their nation.

Anyway, what we do know is in the West, we allow terrifying chemicals to flood into our drinking water and food. Much of this is driven by the age of plastics- and since plastics are 'organic' chemistry, living tissue has a baked in vulnerability to many organic chemicals. And the intensive farming of the West puts another raft of chemicals into the Human diet.

When fertility rates drop, social factors also matter. If traditional westerners are already significantly changing the size of their families downwards (later marriage- more parents wanting just one or two kids), a drop in fertility can end up meaning no kids at all. Meanwhile the new 'immigrants' who come from cultures wanting as many kids as possible will tend to mask the drop in fertility with the effort they put into procreating.

In nations like Britain, the Deep State is now openly admiting it opened the floodgates to immigrants precisely because they will have far more kids- helping 'pay' for a rapidly increasing elderly population. Of course this is just an excuse. The real reason was that the native population was never going to willingly vote for the orwellian policies desired by the Deep State. The Deep State has arranged a cultural invasion of West Europe that ensures in 50 years time the common culture there would be utterly alien to someone from the 1960s. A plastic pliable 'religious' population breeding vastly greater numbers of 'cannon fodder' units - as we now see in all muslim nations destroyed by Saudi Arabian wahhabi terrorist in league with the US military.

Thus the fertility disaster becomes an irrelevant 'white person' problem- that organs like slashdot will claim only 'trump-supporting' 'racists' care about. The Deep State in the West rejoices in the drop in the age of puberty because the immigrant flood is not 'modernised' but encouraged to hold onto 19th century principles of family, like arranged marraiges, early marriages

Hot Balls!

[nicoleb_x]

Probably just the men in the western world getting their balls too hot. No big deal really. Search for "Genital heat stress and semen quality".

Re:Hot Balls!

[XMLResponse]

My first thought too! Last year there was an ig nobel prize for reasearch that showed wearing synthetic pants heated mens balls enough to serve as a contraceptive. Sure the sample was small (N=14) but it's a cheap and reversible contraception method. Frankly i think they deserved the Nobel prize. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... That's deskjobs for you, that and endocrine disruptors.

Frost Pist

[Anonymous Coward]

He ain't got no time for spell check or RTFA.

Not this westerner

[Anonymous Coward]

7 kids under my belt, errr well used to be under my belt.

Makes sense

[An Ominous Coward]

Increased sexual equality and decreasing importance of marriage in Western countries have strengthened actual monogamous relationships, at the expense of nominally monogamous marriages (avoid social stigma, requiring a breadwinner when one partner is excluded from the workforce, etc.) that lack emotional connection and lead to partners straying. This means there is less need for sperm competition to ensure heirs, therefore the selection pressure is on lower sperm counts and redirecting those resources elsewhere.

You must've burnt 'em & hurt their 'pride'

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: I only say that as I know what the cause of my 'troll fanclub' is & it is EXACTLY that in almost every instance... so:

Who'd you outright sizzle w/ facts so badly?

(Think that one over & then you will have your answer as to WHO is doing it... almost guaranteed).

APK

P.S.=> One of my best pals weighs, no shit, 450lbs - now He's FAT (he doesn't like hearing it though) but I could care less personally - he's honest & you always know where you stand w/ him (for the most part). That's WHY I consider him a pal (who cares how somebody looks UNLESS they're UGLY INSIDE too. Hey, I've met women who @ FIRST I thought "Oh my God are you sexy" UNTIL I got to know the REAL them & their TRUE "ugly" overshadowed their physical beauty totally)... apk

Re:You must've burnt 'em & hurt their 'pride'

[__aaclcg7560]

Who'd you outright sizzle w/ facts so badly?

The prick who posted dick pics with my info on Russian image websites. I'm turning that into a YouTube video project.

https://github.com/cdreimer/how_to_takedown_dick_pics_from_russian_image_websites

Re:You must've burnt 'em & hurt their 'pride'

[Anonymous Coward]

Russian dick vid

needs more bee

bee

Re:You must've burnt 'em & hurt their 'pride'

[ls671]

I appreciate the amount of work done in this project so far and how regularly commits are made so we can watch the progress. Seriously, it looks like an empty shell that is just another place to post links to advertise your "sideline businesses" so, your big wheel of links can go round and round.

Cheers,

Re:You must've burnt 'em & hurt their 'pride'

[__aaclcg7560]

Seriously, it looks like an empty shell that is just another place to post links to advertise your "sideline businesses" so, your big wheel of links can go round and round.

I find your lack of faith disturbing. :P

Re:You must've burnt 'em & hurt their 'pride'

[Anonymous Coward]

I find you disturbing.

Re:You must've burnt 'em & hurt their 'pride'

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi. I'm a member of your troll fanclub. It has nothing to do with anything you've said, as there are plenty of nonsense posts from other users. Your posts are exceptionally troll-worthy because you start them in the subject line and clutter up the remainder with unnecessary colons, parentheticals, post-scripts, ampersands, hyphens, commercial ats, single quotes, double quotes, abbreviations, and random capitalization.

You, sir, are a punctuation abuser! Learn to write.

Depends on what he's looking at her doing...

[Anonymous Coward]

Like some other guy for instance.

There is a whole subculture around that.

Ok, so you're just "busting his balls"

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: You're just f'ing around & not serious. He left a link in reply here so even IF he's fat he isn't ashamed of it obviously. I could care less if a dude's fat (one of my best pals since 2004 is HUGE fat in fact & I noted it in my reply to him). Yes, I will use it against someone who gives me guff, but it's more about the "internals" of someone's persona imo. You can be beautiful/handsome outside, but UGLY as hell inside & it radiates out over physicality imo.

HOWEVER: Women I do though (lol)!

Speaking of which: IF he is a virgin? In a way, I ENVY him. Women (well, me really) have made me a "broken sad defeated abused man" as I didn't know how to handle it well early on so... in a way, he's avoided ALL that madness & lunacy (think about it - perhaps you've never been there & were TOO SMART to play/chump yourself, but admittely, I have - 1 of the worst experiences in my life).

* ANYHOW/ANYWAYS - you're not serious, you're just f'ing around so, thanks for answering truthfully.

APK

P.S.=> I would click on his link he left to pics of himself on his site but, I won't (would give away my true IP address which I don't even use on /. - I probably will later though, now that both YOU & HE have me curious)... apk

Re:Ok, so you're just "busting his balls"

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares about your IP address when we already know where you live? ROFLMAO.

It's Because Women are a Pain in the Ass

[Anonymous Coward]

That is the only logical explanation for this. Women are fucking impossible to deal with anymore. They cannot be satisfied no matter how much money you make, how much you work out, how much stuff you have, or how popular you are. You're never good enough.

It gets to the point that you don't even want to reproduce with them anymore, and so your body's like "whatever, Ima shut down this sperm factory down here and use my energy to get better at minecraft instead."

Not long ago a friend of mine and I were having a beer and he asked me, "you know, my wife thinks you don't like her; you never talk to her and blow her off when she tries to talk to you." And my response was, "she's right." I actually loathe the idea of interacting with females in any capacity. It's actually pretty fucking great, because it's so much less stress in my life. I'm not constantly having to walk on eggshells and jump through hoops.

Re:It's Because Women are a Pain in the Ass

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like you've done us a favor saving us from having to interact with you.

So you are saying that men are ok with poor, overweight, unemployed, unpopular women, and if you were looking for a women to date someone like that would be good enough? But women seem to have higher standards than that and it's a problem? Really?

If I was a man I'd be insulted you're stating that men aren't picky and any woman will do. I'm pretty sure that's not the case though.

Re:It's Because Women are a Pain in the Ass

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a saying, "If everyone around you is an asshole, then you're the asshole".

Re:It's Because Women are a Pain in the Ass

[Evtim]

Don't fret! The women asking the impossible is the very thing that drives the sexual selection. If they don't whip us all the time men will stagnate......as a man I don't like it but there it is....it's a feature, but indeed it can be a bug as well if taken to extremes.

Few years ago there was this fantastic documentary on the BBC about a guy with small dick. At a certain moment he invited 3 ladies to the studio. At first the ladies were sooooo dismissive and derisive about "dick fear" and were like "no size is not that important; it is other men that made you fell inadequate because men make porn and porn is unrealistic". So he asked them to model from clay the perfect dick for them. Guess what - all 3 models were significantly above average both in length and girt. Talking about who instills inferiority complexes in men , eh :)

The thing is, women will never admit the fact that they are the dominant gender, always have been and always will be. Their strategy is to present themselves as prey and the men as predators. Only, once the predator catches the prey, the prey "surrenders" and becomes the master. Men rule the world; women rule the men. We are tools for their survival and procreation. Women have had twice as high reproduction success compare to men in history. Women live longer, are healthier and are overly protected by society. And that is how it should be.....the problem is when some of them refuse to recognize that and instead want the impossible - that society treats them as men in terms of rewards but as women in terms of risk-taking. Can't work ever.

Regarding the news itself - well all the plausible culprits were listed by various /. -rs - plastics, obesity, food, tight clothing, over-population, social constructs (remember the millennials are having less sex as well), stress....

Re:It's Because Women are a Pain in the Ass

[AmiMoJo]

Few years ago there was this fantastic documentary on the BBC about a guy with small dick. At a certain moment he invited 3 ladies to the studio. At first the ladies were sooooo dismissive and derisive about "dick fear" and were like "no size is not that important; it is other men that made you fell inadequate because men make porn and porn is unrealistic". So he asked them to model from clay the perfect dick for them. Guess what - all 3 models were significantly above average both in length and girt. Talking about who instills inferiority complexes in men , eh :)

Those ladies probably don't care about size, at least consciously. The problem is that most people don't see a lot of genitals in real life, the majority are in porn. And they don't hire porn stars for their acting skills, and of course shaving pubic hair makes it look bigger too. So subconsciously they have an unrealistic image of what a normal size penis is like, and are influenced by what porn portrays as "ideal". They probably have similar ideas about the shape of the female body, due to airbrushed magazines full of skinny models.

It's really important that we try to combat this with more realistic models and by talking about what most bodies are really like. And studies like this don't really tell us anything about how those women would react if they met the guy and ended up in bed with him... I imagine that dick size is probably not a big factor compared to how the guy treats them, how he touches them, the things he says... It's not like lesbians have unfulfilling sex.

The thing is, women will never admit the fact that they are the dominant gender, always have been and always will be.

For much of history women have been little more than property at best, so I don't think that's true. Even just 150 years ago, if a gentleman's wife died he could expect to marry her younger sister if someone else hadn't already claimed her.

We are tools for their survival and procreation.

You could make the same argument about women. The reality is that both genders need each other in order to procreate, but relationships are about more than just finding a sperm sample or womb.

Women live longer, are healthier and are overly protected by society. And that is how it should be

Disagree, men should have equality here. For practical reasons it may never be exactly equal, but there is a lot we could do to help men live longer.

Re:It's Because Women are a Pain in the Ass

[Anonymous Coward]

The thing is, women will never admit the fact that they are the dominant gender, always have been and always will be.

For much of history women have been little more than property at best, so I don't think that's true. Even just 150 years ago, if a gentleman's wife died he could expect to marry her younger sister if someone else hadn't already claimed her.

Females are the dominant gender in most species EXCEPT humans. Look at the peacock, all pretty to try get the hens attention. With people it's the opposite with women putting on heels and makeup in order to attract the males. Perhaps the natural order of things is restoring himself.

Re:It's Because Women are a Pain in the Ass

[Anonymous Coward]

For much of history, a majority of the population of humans have been little more than property. The folks that think these miseries fell to women only are completely unsympathetic to male suffering and historically ignorant.

Perfectly coincides with the rise of feminism...

[Anonymous Coward]

Drop in men's sperm counts match up perfectly with the rise in feminism. Wonder if rather than due to some type of physical or environmental effect, it could be psychology affect men's sperm counts...

Longitudinal Study

[Anonymous Coward]

In a longitudinal study that follows the same male subjects over the course of 40 years, OF COURSE sperm counts are going to drop. That happens when you get old... ... dumbasses. And this is what we call "science" today. It's no wonder we think the Earth is a runaway oven and that all of our medical ills are caused by gluten.

Re:Longitudinal Study

[RockDoctor]

It's not new results. It's a metaanalysis of a large number of previous studies. Dumbass - go read the fucking article.

Re: Is this a bad thing?

[easyTree]

Is this a bad thing? Can't see how

Possibly because it makes you go blind too? :P

RoTfLmAo - are you kidding me? apk

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: Whoever you got to the most must've pulled that crap. Juvenile crap. You really got their goat then.

* It's also funny you're turning it into a project (the name you gave it had me lmao here by the way... lol!).

"how_to_takedown_dick_pics_from_russian_image_websites"

LOL! Priceless & hilarious... good choice for a name, funny & straight to the point!

APK

P.S.=> Good luck man but in all honesty? NOBODY believes that bullshit man (@ least I don't) about that being 'you' etc. (it's too juvenile is why) - think about it (it's to get you "flustered" is all).

By the way - I read a reply of yours once & I liked it: You said your past was pitiful BUT your future's BRIGHT (great outlook man - keep it (it'll take you ANYWHERE you want to go/be really))

Anyway, I am "out of this one" but it was getting so bad, you appeared to have a 'troll fanclub' of the likes I have (lol, I was 'jealous' (not really)) so, I was curious (the guy who did this one says he's just goofing on you/busting your nuts, not serious)... apk

Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

Every sperm is sacred https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bzVHjg3AqIQ

Hagai Levine declares Western sperm holocaust

[Anonymous Coward]

Oy Vey! The goyim must breed with Africans if they are to survive.

Good.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish I was impotent. Make birth control is a still years away from reality and I like raw doggin' it way too much. Less kids is better, the Occident is just a bunch of fuck ups now-a-days anyway. I for one welcome our Asian overlords. Let them have a stab at it.

Re: My offer to help

[easyTree]

Pretty fsking creepy of them.

No Mobile phones near my nutsack

[Anonymous Coward]

back pocket for me

Estrogen mimic plasticizers all over the environme

[HiThere]

Estrogen mimic plasticizers are all over the environment. They're in your clothes, your bottled water, your food, the chairs you sit in, ETC.

They would be my first guess as to the reason for many abnormalities, and certainly for something involving sperm counts.

Re:Is this a bad thing?

[Pseudonym]

The Handmaid's Tale.

feminism

[Anonymous Coward]

I blame feminism. They have already cut of an average of one ball from every American male, halving the sperm count. When they are through cutting off the other ball, the sperm count will drop to zero. A few decades later, American will be populated only by parthenogenically propagating lesbians.

Re:Estrogen mimic plasticizers all over the enviro

[Anonymous Coward]

Estrogen mimic plasticizers are all over the environment

Estrogen mimics like Anita Sarkeesian!

I blame synthetic

[mark_reh]

underwear!

Re: My offer to help

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think they even wanted a baby. I think it was because it was almost halloween and they wanted more ectoplasm for the haunted house.

psychosomatic

[Anonymous Coward]

The longer I live in this world, the less impressive my loads have become. Instead of intercourse-related noises, when I have an orgasm I'm just like "Meh"

Estrogen

[Anonymous Coward]

Many plastics interact with the human body in the same way as estrogen. RBGH also interacts with the human body in the same way as estrogen. Not only does this result in lower sperm counts, but if it makes it way into the fetuses of pregnant women, it can cause gender dystopia (aka gender identity disorder). I would not be surprised if we discovered that the number of gay males and trans humans has been on the rise, even after accounting for greater rates of gays coming out.

Re:Estrogen

[iggymanz]

hilarious the posts blaming plastics for a minute amount of estrogen equivalent when we have tons of actual estrogen being dumped into the water supply via women's birth control pills

Re:Estrogen

[omnichad]

xenoestrogens in plastics - like BPA that comes in contact with food and even lines most metal food cans. It's much closer in concentration than you'd find in birth control pills diluted by a lake after sewage treatment, but both are a factor. PCBs like you'd find in office fluorescent tubes (once they get really old) become airborne and get breathed in. They're everywhere.

Soybeans produce phytoestrogens and soy byproducts are used in almost everything as far as industrial food goes.

Hmmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

After accounting for factors including age and how long men had gone without ejaculation

Hmmm, I'm sure that men in the western world wouldn't lie about how long they've gone without ejaculation.

The solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Western men sperm count low?

No problem !

Just import more Muslim Men into the Western countries and the mean sperm count will inflate, magically!

Re:The solution

[amalcolm]

I think you are hanging out in the wrong bars

Re:The solution

[Anonymous Coward]

What gives (or fails to give) you an erection and what lowers your sperm count have nothing at all to do with one another.

Re: The solution

[kenh]

Exactly. Increased arousal does not increase sperm count.

I wonder if this study took into account the new, evolved definition of 'male' to include people lacking the body parts needed to actually produce sperm?

Re: The solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Haha don't you dare tell one of those that they are not real men , they will call you a hater

Re:The solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong. How much sperm men produce is affected by whether there are women around, and whether they are attractive.

Producing sperm is energy intensive. It happens less if it's not needed.

GOP killed Testin and QC decades ago to save money

[Anonymous Coward]

America is a mentally ill country that is afflicted with Wall (Street) Syndrome.
Insane investors will sacrifice children to meet Wall street expectations.

Over the last few months several Science reports were released, each dealing with the subject of drugs, water, and gender.
Many people take prescribed medication with no thought of what they do to the body, how they are used, or what actually becomes of them.
As example, when we ingest vitamins, our bodies take what it needs and the excess is passed out of the body via urine an excrement. Therefore, these excess vitamins end up in our water supply.
The same is true for medications dealing with high blood pressure, diabetes, Anti-depressants or Anti-Psychotics.
Approximately 70-80% of these medications are passed through and end up accumulating in the water system.
For the last 10-12 years, Anti-depressants have been over prescribed and the number 1 medication prescribed by doctors in the US.
I read a science report a few months ago of large amounts of Anti-depressants being measurable in our drinking water.
These were also detected in the ocean, which means the levels must be pretty high if they can be measured in an ocean.
Scientists also noticed a change in the ocean wild life. There were a variety of fish whose gender was being drastically altered by these drugs, with some male fish even developing female organs.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if this has also contributed largely to the sudden emphasis of trans-gender alteration we are seeing in humans for the last 10 years.

Surely, the EPA and FDA must have noticed this change in our water supply. The question is, why haven't they responded by protecting the citizens?

More frequent sex?

[Anonymous Coward]

Personally, mines still 100% because I was 2, however, maybe males are having sex more frequently... so that the stores of sperm don't get to their full load (unintentional pun) before the next delivery?

Either way... a joyous day...becuase now males can claim that they have to have sex twice as much for the same outcome.

Choose

[Tablizer]

It's because we don't play enough football.

Do you want a powerful brain or powerful balls?

To paraphrase Chernobyl era Soviet Joke

[iamacat]

If you want to be a dad, better wrap your balls in lead.

Plastics in the food chain

[erexx23]

Plastics in the food chain. bisphenol A and phthalates are chemicals that leach from plastics and disrupt the endocrine system. No matter what you chose believe, good luck avoiding them.

Re:Plastics in the food chain

[iggymanz]

very minor effect compared to the feminine hormone analogs emitted by body fat. The major culprit is obesity.

Old news

[Anonymous Coward]

And it was debunked as not actually real. Just a shibboleth of the method of measuring.

Re:and for non-western men? Big problems in Japan!

[Anonymous Coward]

> and for non-western men? ... What's been happening with them?

I think you are asking about "developed" countries outside of the "Western" or graeco-roman-christian cultural tradition (because we know "developing" third-world countries have no problem producing a huge number of newborn babies every year).

Anyhow the situation in e.g. Japan is even more disastrous, they are on the verge of abyssal demographic collapse, with just 1.2 reproductive rate (even though 2.1 would still be mere sustainment of headcount). Japan too has the sperm count problem and furthermore: their boys never grow into men, but keep jacking off compulsively to 2D anime / manga / game girls, like Idolm@ster, while japanese girls grow into lone ladies who keep cats instead of husband and kids.

The all pervasive and heavily propagandized "j-pop" culture has also taken a bizarre and dangerous direction in the last 15 years or so: on the face of it, it still idolizes girls (the "seifuku" mini-skirt schoolgirl heroine stereotype) but in fact the stories just preach expendability and replaceability of girl characters, scripts are more and more angsty just for the sake of angst and usually the survivor is the boy, not the girl. This teaches boys commitment is unimportant and also teaches girls that boys cannot be trusted to keep their promises (I will save you, I will make you happy! Marry me... girl is slaughtered next day...) Societal peer pressure forces almost everybody to watch anime junk in Japan and what they see takes a toll on the population's mental state or even health.

It also doesn't help that divorce law in Japan is terribly unfair to the women, i.e. the husband can walk away any time, without paying a dime, provided he doesn't want to see ex and kids ever again. Furthermore the structure of japanese language differs a lot between male and female speakers and so their guys address the ladyfolk in rather (c)rude terms. Now that japanese girls are also getting good quality public education they are less and less willing to accept being addressed almost as an animal and just shun contact with malekind.

(This is not a joke, I've read several foreigners reports which coherently claim that having a vocabulary of just 150-200 words and saying 5-10 basic kind sentences to young japanese women essentially made them melt out of their pantsu. They have never been fawned or even addressed with true respect in their whole life by a member of the stronger sex! Apparently japanese men are really unsure of themselves over and under the beltline and express that in verbal arrogance towards the ladyfolk.)

We do less male stuff.

[Qbertino]

We do less male stuff, plain and simple. Testosterone is down from sitting on the couch, getting fat, drinking to much beer, stimulating with videogames rather than real stuggles and not work harder physical labour as we used to. Porn feeds an epidemic of erectile dysfunction that has to play out into sperm quality and count at some point. And on top of that the guilt-show western males have to go through hamper true male heterosexuality - a very important aspect consistently left out of this shitty ongoing gender debate that seems to totally ignore hetero males other than in shaming them.

Anecdotal point in case: I startet social dancing (Tango) about a decade back. Curiously, this old-school supposedly macho dance is consistently overbooked with often very well educated women who apparently really desire a strong man to hug and lead them at regular intervals. I just came back from a Tango trip to Moscow two days ago, which drove this impression home tenfold for me once again.
Anyhow, after starting Tango I started to finally get the encounters with women I had so desperately desired since my teenages, often just consisting of firmly hugging a beautiful lady for an extended period of time, and soon noticed my body hair getting significantly darker and my voice lowering. Clear sings of testosterone going up to normal levels. That, as you can imagine, actually did amp my attractieness to the ladies quite a bit.

Now being in my mid/late 40ies I'm also slowly getting a grip on the "male guilt" thing that comes with growing up in an often wrongly feminist society. I'm leaving nerdy escapism more and more behind (Slashdot being still one of the exceptions) and have by now had enough sexual experiences to finally feel OK as a white hetero man. Not perfect, but OK. The guilt thing withdrawing includes a healthy perspective on porn and masturbating (i.e. not that spectacular as the real thing and often not worth it) which actually go back to 'normal' levels once confidence sets in and there is emotional room for escapism and numbing to retreat.

Long story short: We basically lack most of the natural environment that makes men men and have to work it out in other ways. Ad in fathers either chickening out of their responsiblities or - as in the US - too much in a legal risk to get married these days and you completed the picture. That sperm count goes down in these times comes as no real surprise to me.

My 2 eurocents.

Re:We do less male stuff.

[Anonymous Coward]

"male guilt" yeah i had the same, about three years ago i decided i wanted to enjoy my masculinity so i started lifting weights and going to a boxing gym, also i stopped caring about my feelings (which sounds really silly when phrased like that) and i feel way better, growing up a punk with many feminist friends made me feel really guilty but now i realise i can be a macho without being an asshole.

Re:We do less male stuff.

[citylivin]

Your post is the definition of coming to a conclusion using an anecdote.

" I startet social dancing (Tango) about a decade back" "Now being in my mid/late 40ies" "soon noticed my body hair getting significantly darker and my voice lowering. Clear sings of testosterone going up to normal levels."

So around the age of 35 you got more hair and voice got deeper. However i am pretty sure this happens to everyone. I was completely bodily hairless in my 20s but the 30s were a different story.

This is a result of normal aging, not some kind of "close proximity to attractive women" fantasy. Dancing made you more fit, and gave you confidence which makes one more attractive, etc. This is why we dont use anecdotes to prove things scientifically, you havent controlled for anything.

Re:We do less male stuff.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how much reproductive prospect has to do with any decline or change. The psychology should have some physiological effects.

Re: My offer to help

[easyTree]

Ok. In which case, not creepy at all.

Wait wth?!

Re:and for non-western men? Big problems in Japan!

[OneoFamillion]

I get what you're saying, but it honestly isn't very unusual for women to melt out of their pants if a foreigner compliments them in their own language, no matter where you are. Women are always somewhat interested in bringing exotic genes into the local gene pool, it's a basic evolutionary tactic to avoid inbreeding.

Worry Not, Humanity, For I Shall Save You!

[hyades1]

If the trend continues, there will be a day when Western Man is no longer able to produce sperm at all.

But fear not, humanity! Thanks to frozen sperm, bulls that died years ago are still fathering calves. With my high IQ and 6' 2" manly-man size, I am willing to contribute now to save First World Man from extinction.

Charlize Theron...honey...I'm afraid you'll just have to lean into the strike zone take one for the team. The future of the world will be in your hands. Literally.

Inbox me, honey. Let's get this done!

Re:Worry Not, Humanity, For I Shall Save You!

[ozzyofpi]

Charlize Theron...honey...I'm afraid you'll just have to lean into the strike zone take one for the team. The future of the world will be in your hands. Literally.

I love this guy.

false hopes

[shentino]

I thought it said "spam" counts.

So who will inherit the earth?

[Anonymous Coward]

And so this is how Western civilization goes out the door... Let's see, who are the most fecund people of the earth, those who will inherit it? Hmm...pretty depressing now that I've asked it...

Sperm Count in Western Man

[Anonymous Coward]

For a more satirical take on the sperm count in Western Civilization, check out http://www.johnnyrobish.com/in-the-news/western-mens-sperm-counts-halved-last-40-years

OBVIOUS

[Anonymous Coward]

The critical pundits will say this is junk science, as they expect us to accept their idea that man is fully responsible for climate change.

Those same asshats want us to duck and cover everytime N.K. fires a rocket that crashes into the ocean.

Want us to get vaccinated every time somebody in Africa gets a cold.

Want us to accept water as safe to drink even when it catches fire directly out of the faucit.

They ignore the evidence we show them that Autism is caused by GMO "food" and/or vaccines that have Mercury in them.

Environmentalists are silent on this.

[Anonymous Coward]

And environmentalists are silent on this.

Where are they?

I suspect Big Pharma bought them off. Remember, reproductive freedom means we must destroy the environment.

Re: Environmentalists are silent on this.

[Anonymous Coward]

No they're not, you're just not listening.

Upside to it

[Anonymous Coward]

There are 52.4% less sperm deaths every year and the numbers are shrinking.

Re:Estrogen mimic plasticizers all over the enviro

[electroniceric]

Amen. Once you start thinking about where plastic is found, and the precious few places where it isn't found, plus as you say known estrogen mimic properties (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222987/), it's pretty hard not to see that as a the culprit.

Re: Wild guess - too late

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/men-may-not-bleed-but-heres-why-they-have-periods

Please define

[kenh]

Define 'men'.

In my case

[Anonymous Coward]

In 1970, my step father told my younger brother that if I did anything he didn't like, he was to kick me in the balls, repeatedly. In 1973, he told his son, my half brother, the same thing, so in my case, my sperm production has suffered probably due to having been kicked in the balls a few hundred times between when I was 10 and when I was 17.

Here's several reasons

[whitroth]

1. Someone mentioned obesity, which does lower fertility.
2. Oh, and need moar guns, gotta protect ourselves against, um, against people who don't live here, who... make sure that we're TERRIFIED, SCARED SHITLESS ALL THE TIME, and that cuts fertility.

3. Finally, it sure looks to me like the studies they did in the sixties and seventies with rats on overpopulation. Once it hits that, you get fewer kids, more craziness, cannibalism... hell, you might have a psychotic elected President!

FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha! {wipes off mouth}

Next time, use spell-check.

Re:and for non-western men? Big problems in Japan!

[Anonymous Coward]

It also doesn't help that divorce law in Japan is terribly unfair to the women, i.e. the husband can walk away any time, without paying a dime, provided he doesn't want to see ex and kids ever again.

Can the woman do the same? If yes, it sounds pretty fair to me.

Most likely cause...

[Anonymous Coward]

By far the most likely cause of lower sperm count in western men is... western women! Testosterone decreases in proportion to how low you are on the pecking order. Western men have been told they are total losers for decades. Result: lower sperm. Western women, though, have increased their sperm count, or so it would seem.

Re:Estrogen mimic plasticizers all over the enviro

[Anonymous Coward]

Not just plastics, I would guess it's also all the chemicals in processed foods that has long term effects.

My guess would be

[Anonymous Coward]

our increasingly sedentary lifestyles. I would really like to see a study where counts are compared between people who exercise regularly and those who do not. I would further like to see such a study broken-down by type of exercise, such as bar bell strength training vs cross-fit vs pure cardio vs just using those Nautilus-type machines at the gym.

Global groin warming

[Anonymous Coward]

Too much methane

"News for men" != "News for nerds"

[Anonymous Coward]

This has nothing to do with technology.

Experts

[Anonymous Coward]

Boy is this comment section full of highly educated, well respected, nutrition scientists who can all tell you precisely why this is happening. Weird that they contradict each other though.

Probably Oral Contraception

[Anonymous Coward]

It's probably oral contraception. It seems each generation is much less fertile than the last. Pretty soon everyone will be sterile except those that didn't believe in it and followed natural family planning. That's what happens when you separate the sex act from procreation and make it a sterile act. When you mess with natural law, there will be consequences.

Re:Estrogen mimic plasticizers all over the enviro

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. The explosion of plastic in everything, wrapping everything, items impregnated (no pun intended) with anti-bacterial chemicals and what not. What they should do is measure men for the amount of chemicals in their bodies. Perhaps you'd see a correlation worth investigating. Since the 1940's we have been creating artificial substances that are never tested, often are used for thing different that what was planned (artificial sweetener was originally rat poison), these substances mix together in ways that can't be tested or even thought of TO test, chemicals are added to foods, etc. etc. What really pissed me off is the long list of chemicals that were banned in Europe, but still OK here. What do they know that we are ignoring because of politics or money?

Really a problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

Given the overpopulation issues we're heading toward, is a decreased sperm count such a bad thing?

Re:Really a problem?

[kattisch]

Overpopulation is a myth. Malthus, in Essay on the Principle of Population thought the world was overpopulated in the late 1798 and thought we should kill off poor people because they were less deserving of life than rich people. He thought doctors shouldn't cure disease. Paul Ehrlich in the 1970s said that famines would devastate humanity by the 1980s. Did you know that everyone on earth could get a comfortable 33' x 33' plot of land and would only take up the size of the state of Texas and the rest of the world would be empty? Here's the math 7.5 billion people divided by 7.5 billion sq. ft (in Texas) is about 1000 sq. ft/person or a plot about 33' x 33'.

The USA's food supply is adulterated.

[ToddInSF]

It is THE most adulterated food supply int he world.



You can't even know what's IN the products you buy because of the shit labeling laws favoring corporations.



You should be upset. You should be outraged. You should be demanding a stop to this absurd corruption. But you're like all Americans, you remain silent. You deserve to die off.

FAKE NEWS!

[Anonymous Coward]

(artificial sweetener was originally rat poison)

No it wasn't!

Rise Of Robots

[Anonymous Coward]

Robots don't need sperm. Humans will die off in the robot apocolypse.

Children of Men

[fastasleep]

^ this BPAs and similar other toxins in the environment will be our slow undoing. It'll be just slow enough that we'll let it happen before doing anything to prevent it, just like climate change.

Re:Estrogen mimic plasticizers all over the enviro

[RockDoctor]

Well, at least you have an understanding of the difference between a plastic and a plasticiser.

Re:Is this a bad thing?

[RockDoctor]

I don't see any big problems either. It'll take time (generations, literally not figuratively) to work through the demographic pyramid, but reducing fertility is an obvious requirement on a planet of finite resources and with an individual desire to not die young.

Halved?

[michael_wojcik]

Ridiculous. My sperm count decreased by 100% in the past 40 years. In fact, it decreased by 100% over a few days in 2001, and it's stayed at zero since.

Since this is Slashdot, I'm assuming my anecdotal experience counts as compelling evidence for the general case.