4 ms·

> Read the book "Countdown". The author goes into great detail all of the reasons that modern life is putting downward pressure on sperm quality and quantity.

by ralfd 4y ago

> Read the book "Countdown". The author goes into great detail all of the reasons that modern life is putting downward pressure on sperm quality and quantity. What reasons would apply to you?

Dig1t 4y ago
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (mostly phthalates), they are present in most food and bathroom packaging. Any plastic that is flexible. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/the-big-3-why-phthalates-should-be-restricted-or-banned-from-consumer-products/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/the-big-3-why-pht... "They’ve been shown to be anti-androgenic—in other words, they decrease testosterone. In studies with rats, it’s been shown that if you dose the pregnant mother, the offspring have defects of the male reproductive tract. There have also been studies in humans that have found anti-androgenic effects on development of the male reproductive tract." https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/common-chemicals-may-harm-sperm-and-pregnancies-growing-evidence-shows/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/common-chemicals-... https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/10/phthalates-plastics-chemicals-research-analysis https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/10/phthala... There is a mountain of research on these chemicals. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2873014/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2873014/ "There was also a dose–response relationship between MBzP (the primary hydrolytic metabolite of BBzP) and below WHO reference value sperm concentration. In a recent follow-up study including these 168 men, plus an additional 295 men newly recruited into the study, Hauser et al. (2006) confirmed the associations between MBP and increased odds of below-reference sperm concentration and motility. "
- midoridensha 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - femaleuprising 4y ago
    You make a excellent point, I agree that as a species we should collectively pursue this, as an option at least. I expect a successful artificial procreation attempt is on the horizon, a few decades away at most, as we already have stem cell technology that can do part of this, and in-vitro fertilization is a well-established technique. As a symbolic gesture, it would be wonderful to see a lesbian couple co-conceive with each others' genetic material, entirely eliminating males from the process. The really hard part will be perfecting and commodifying the process before hordes of angry men rebel at their sudden uselessness, and have such research banned and the labs destroyed.
  - throwaway4aday 4y ago
    > The solution is simple This has got to be sarcasm. How is it simpler to completely replace sexual reproduction than it is to find another chemical that makes plastic more flexible? Seems like a case of 0 knowledge of chemistry or biology.
  - myshpa 4y ago
    Changing packaging is complicated, so we change the way we procreate? I must have missed the /s somewhere. I have better solution. Don't let market forces dictate everything. Optimizing for the price does not work everytime. Go back to inert/non-toxic materials (glass, paper, wax), or find new ones. Abolish poisons and plastics in our food chains.
    - beezlewax 4y ago
      This is the only way. Make it costly via legislation to produce harmful products. Hell make it illegal. We've see how quickly industry can adapt when forced to during covid. It's just that no one is forcing them to do anything.
  - krageon 4y ago
    This is needlessly hostile to about half of all humans and almost tailor-made to inspire anger. What were you aiming to achieve by saying this?
  - jjtheblunt 4y ago
    I imagine you're joking because "eliminate all males" sounds like you are suggesting eliminating meiosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis and thereby eliminating adaptability via random exploration of allele combinations from distinct parents?
- amluto 4y ago
  > Endocrine disrupting chemicals (mostly phthalates), they are present in most food and bathroom packaging. Any plastic that is flexible. Citation, please. As I understand it, polyethylene (especially LDPE) and polypropylene are flexible all by themselves and generally contain no plasticizers at all. And they are quite common.
- bambax 4y ago
  One big problem with this whole thing is that the country that has the most possible factors for sperm-count decline, the US (obesity, pollution, circadian cycles disruptions, etc.) is also the country with the smallest measured drop.
  - mandmandam 4y ago
    That also happens to be the country where the EPA said water and air were clean after the Ohio train derailment [0]. The same EPA that falsifies new chemicals risk assessments as a matter of course [1]. Where the FCC said millions of dead people, many with the same name, wanted net neutrality overturned. And when caught, went ahead and overturned it anyway. Where the CDC said that masks don't help against an airborne virus, before exaggerating their effectiveness to justify ineffective mandates and lockdowns in schools. Where whistleblowers are smeared, jailed, and tortured. Where environmental lawyers are disbarred and jailed by the justice system itself as recrimination for exposing corporate atrocities [3]. Where the military leaves dangerous chemicals around as a matter of routine with absolutely no consequences (other than the organ failures and cancer). Where the tapwater around the country is hazardous to human health [4]. Where reliable numbers on something as crucial as vaccine effectiveness vs a dangerous pandemic are impossible to obtain. Where estimates of civilian casualties in its illegal wars are off by 7 figures. My point: You might want to take official America's numbers on anything and everything with some salt. Including sperm counts. [0] - https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/11/health/ohio-train-derailment-white-noise/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/11/health/ohio-train-derailm... [1] - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/27/epa-whistleblowers-falsifying-risk-assessments-dangerous-chemicals https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/27/epa-whis... [2] - https://www.npr.org/2017/12/14/570262688/as-fcc-prepares-net-neutrality-vote-study-finds-millions-of-fake-comments https://www.npr.org/2017/12/14/570262688/as-fcc-prepares-net... [3] - https://www.tbsnews.net/features/panorama/curious-case-steven-donziger-environmental-lawyer-who-took-big-oil-and-ended-jail https://www.tbsnews.net/features/panorama/curious-case-steve... [4] - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/31/americas-tap-water-samples-forever-chemicals https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/31/americas-tap...
    - 4y ago
- globular-toast 4y ago
  What about your balls being too warm? A lot of people spend all their day inside in heated rooms or in a car with a heated seat.
  - patates 4y ago
    But then is the heat also increasing in this linear fashion as the sperm count decrease?
    - globular-toast 4y ago
      It doesn't explain an individual's sperm count declining over time. But more people spending more time indoors with warm balls could explain the average sperm count decreasing.
  - swalling 4y ago
    This TED talk warned us about local warming years ago. https://youtu.be/waO8KKtVgaQ https://youtu.be/waO8KKtVgaQ

by ralfd 4y ago

> Read the book "Countdown". The author goes into great detail all of the reasons that modern life is putting downward pressure on sperm quality and quantity. What reasons would apply to you?

Dig1t 4y ago

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (mostly phthalates), they are present in most food and bathroom packaging. Any plastic that is flexible. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/the-big-3-why-phthalates-should-be-restricted-or-banned-from-consumer-products/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/the-big-3-why-pht... "They’ve been shown to be anti-androgenic—in other words, they decrease testosterone. In studies with rats, it’s been shown that if you dose the pregnant mother, the offspring have defects of the male reproductive tract. There have also been studies in humans that have found anti-androgenic effects on development of the male reproductive tract." https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/common-chemicals-may-harm-sperm-and-pregnancies-growing-evidence-shows/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/common-chemicals-... https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/10/phthalates-plastics-chemicals-research-analysis https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/10/phthala... There is a mountain of research on these chemicals. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2873014/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2873014/ "There was also a dose–response relationship between MBzP (the primary hydrolytic metabolite of BBzP) and below WHO reference value sperm concentration. In a recent follow-up study including these 168 men, plus an additional 295 men newly recruited into the study, Hauser et al. (2006) confirmed the associations between MBP and increased odds of below-reference sperm concentration and motility. "

midoridensha 4y ago
[flagged]
- femaleuprising 4y ago
  You make a excellent point, I agree that as a species we should collectively pursue this, as an option at least. I expect a successful artificial procreation attempt is on the horizon, a few decades away at most, as we already have stem cell technology that can do part of this, and in-vitro fertilization is a well-established technique. As a symbolic gesture, it would be wonderful to see a lesbian couple co-conceive with each others' genetic material, entirely eliminating males from the process. The really hard part will be perfecting and commodifying the process before hordes of angry men rebel at their sudden uselessness, and have such research banned and the labs destroyed.
- throwaway4aday 4y ago
  > The solution is simple This has got to be sarcasm. How is it simpler to completely replace sexual reproduction than it is to find another chemical that makes plastic more flexible? Seems like a case of 0 knowledge of chemistry or biology.
- myshpa 4y ago
  Changing packaging is complicated, so we change the way we procreate? I must have missed the /s somewhere. I have better solution. Don't let market forces dictate everything. Optimizing for the price does not work everytime. Go back to inert/non-toxic materials (glass, paper, wax), or find new ones. Abolish poisons and plastics in our food chains.
  - beezlewax 4y ago
    This is the only way. Make it costly via legislation to produce harmful products. Hell make it illegal. We've see how quickly industry can adapt when forced to during covid. It's just that no one is forcing them to do anything.
- krageon 4y ago
  This is needlessly hostile to about half of all humans and almost tailor-made to inspire anger. What were you aiming to achieve by saying this?
- jjtheblunt 4y ago
  I imagine you're joking because "eliminate all males" sounds like you are suggesting eliminating meiosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis and thereby eliminating adaptability via random exploration of allele combinations from distinct parents?
amluto 4y ago
> Endocrine disrupting chemicals (mostly phthalates), they are present in most food and bathroom packaging. Any plastic that is flexible. Citation, please. As I understand it, polyethylene (especially LDPE) and polypropylene are flexible all by themselves and generally contain no plasticizers at all. And they are quite common.
bambax 4y ago
One big problem with this whole thing is that the country that has the most possible factors for sperm-count decline, the US (obesity, pollution, circadian cycles disruptions, etc.) is also the country with the smallest measured drop.
- mandmandam 4y ago
  That also happens to be the country where the EPA said water and air were clean after the Ohio train derailment [0]. The same EPA that falsifies new chemicals risk assessments as a matter of course [1]. Where the FCC said millions of dead people, many with the same name, wanted net neutrality overturned. And when caught, went ahead and overturned it anyway. Where the CDC said that masks don't help against an airborne virus, before exaggerating their effectiveness to justify ineffective mandates and lockdowns in schools. Where whistleblowers are smeared, jailed, and tortured. Where environmental lawyers are disbarred and jailed by the justice system itself as recrimination for exposing corporate atrocities [3]. Where the military leaves dangerous chemicals around as a matter of routine with absolutely no consequences (other than the organ failures and cancer). Where the tapwater around the country is hazardous to human health [4]. Where reliable numbers on something as crucial as vaccine effectiveness vs a dangerous pandemic are impossible to obtain. Where estimates of civilian casualties in its illegal wars are off by 7 figures. My point: You might want to take official America's numbers on anything and everything with some salt. Including sperm counts. [0] - https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/11/health/ohio-train-derailment-white-noise/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/11/health/ohio-train-derailm... [1] - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/27/epa-whistleblowers-falsifying-risk-assessments-dangerous-chemicals https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/27/epa-whis... [2] - https://www.npr.org/2017/12/14/570262688/as-fcc-prepares-net-neutrality-vote-study-finds-millions-of-fake-comments https://www.npr.org/2017/12/14/570262688/as-fcc-prepares-net... [3] - https://www.tbsnews.net/features/panorama/curious-case-steven-donziger-environmental-lawyer-who-took-big-oil-and-ended-jail https://www.tbsnews.net/features/panorama/curious-case-steve... [4] - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/31/americas-tap-water-samples-forever-chemicals https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/31/americas-tap...
  - 4y ago
globular-toast 4y ago
What about your balls being too warm? A lot of people spend all their day inside in heated rooms or in a car with a heated seat.
- patates 4y ago
  But then is the heat also increasing in this linear fashion as the sperm count decrease?
  - globular-toast 4y ago
    It doesn't explain an individual's sperm count declining over time. But more people spending more time indoors with warm balls could explain the average sperm count decreasing.
- swalling 4y ago
  This TED talk warned us about local warming years ago. https://youtu.be/waO8KKtVgaQ https://youtu.be/waO8KKtVgaQ