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

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

[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

[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.