Plunging Sperm Counts a ‘Major Public Health’ Crisis

Submitted by Mastodon on Wed, 2017-07-26 00:22

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sperm count is in steep decline. A large review has found a 40-year plunge in sperm count, specifically in men from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand — and the reason may be associated with common factors in our daily lives.

Scientists from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Icahn School of Medicine in New York analyzed 185 studies from 1973 to 2011, including almost 43,000 men. The results were stunning: Researchers found a 52 percent decline in sperm concentration and a 59 percent decline in total sperm count.

The meta-analysis published in the Oxford University journal, Human Reproduction Update, shows that the continued decline doesn’t appear to be leveling off, raising questions about the future of male reproductive health in western males.

“It’s extremely worrisome," Dr. Shanna Swan, study author and professor of environmental medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine told NBC News. “For couples who are trying to conceive, this is a very severe problem and it’s difficult psychologically, but in the big scheme of things, this is also a major public health issue.”
...
“Male fertility predicts overall men’s health”, says Dr. Joseph Alukal, urologist and director of male reproductive health at NYU Langone Health. Studies have shown that lower sperm counts may predict shorter life expectancy and are associated with heart attacks.'

Like0 Dislike0

Comments

I know not everyone feels as I do about the matter of population. Some think we can add another few billion and only then worry. Or some think we'll somehow manage to colonize space in time to move a good number of people off Earth before things get too cramped. But I think creeping sterility, whether it be environmentally induced or is a matter of nature in some way, is probably the most humane and least disruptive way to deal with the burgeoning human population. It beats all of these other methods: starvation, pestilence, nuclear war, massive climate or weather pattern disruptions, space alien invasion, asteroid collision, monstrous solar flares burning Earth to a cinder, etc. See, creeping sterility and far fewer kids riding their bikes out into the middle of the street during rush hour are a vast improvement over any of those other methods of getting the headcount lowered.

But TBH I was rather looking forward to seeing what the space alien invasion looked like.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by Matt on Wed, 2017-07-26 04:59