4 ms·

I've been wondering a lot about fertility lately. Almost every married woman that I know of my age group is seemingly unable to have children, despite, in most

I've been wondering a lot about fertility lately. Almost every married woman that I know of my age group is seemingly unable to have children, despite, in most cases, wanting to. This is often accompanied by PCOS, thyroid problems, or other strange but undiagnosed illnesses. The one exception to this seems to be those of Italian American vintage. Having grown up in Rhode Island I know quite a lot of Italian Americans, and while they all have those strange illnesses, they do seem to be able to have kids almost universally. Something really strange is going on, and it's awful to watch. In some instances the women have actually considered self harm because of their desire and inability to have children, even after tens of thousands spent on IUI and IVF. This can't be accidental, but I have no idea what could be causing it and how anyone would go about proving the connection. I hear all sorts of wild theories such as birth-control in the water, or plastics imitating estrogens, or pesticides interrupting hormone pathways, but they're all correlative when I've investigated. Never really seen it any truly compelling evidence. In fact, I've never even seen real evidence to prove that this is a phenomenon that's actively occurring, but man, it feels like nearly every fertile-age woman I know is having problems, and the few that aren't probably just aren't talking about it. From a personal and selfish standpoint, I now have two kids and it sucks not having any friends that have kids. I hope it gets figured out.

xeromal 3y ago
Just a guess but it's gonna be plastic
- djmips 3y ago
  "There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?"
  - pyuser583 3y ago
    “I’m the future everyone will be made of plastic!”
  - remarkEon 3y ago
    Clip from The Graduate, which is a fantastic film, for those unfamiliar with the reference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMtLdE5Zq-8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMtLdE5Zq-8
Wiki39366 3y ago
[dead]
aylmao 3y ago
Beyond pollutants, which isn't at all far-fetched to think is affecting fertility rates, there's also just life. I know plenty of people who want to have kids, but there's a lot of reasons to wait before having them. The later one waits, the harder (physically) it is to have kids.
- kitsunesoba 3y ago
  The most common one I imagine is finances. I think there's a lot of people who see some level of stability and financial padding on the horizon, far away but within reach given a few years. Because this group sees that glimmer, they chase it and hold off on having kids in hopes of reducing the chances of ending up in dire straits thanks to the expenses that come building a family. The argument against this is that impoverished areas have higher birth rates, and that's probably because they don't see the glimmer. These people are more likely to have resigned themselves to their fate of being poor and kids either don't change that equation or even add value (as they can serve as farmhands and such). If we rewind several decades to when long-term financial stability wasn't so difficult to achieve, the birth rate wasn't an issue. People achieved stability when young and started having kids. If we want to bring the birthrate back up, I think it's going to be necessary to make that possible again.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
mdorazio 3y ago
How old is your age group? I noticed the same thing among my friends, but then also noticed they all didn't start having kids until mid-30s. It turns out career-oriented women are choosing to start having kids much later in their lives than in previous decades, which is definitely a compounding factor.
- COGlory 3y ago
  Late 20s to early 30s mostly. Some have been trying for years though.
  - volkl48 3y ago
    As point of comparison - mean age of first birth for a woman in 1970 was 21.4. In 2017 it was 26.8. In the kinds of places people on this site usually hail from, it was near 30. (MA being oldest, at 29.3) Being quite a few years older than when people typically had kids a generation ago, is probably going to result in some differences in how easy it is. Not saying that's a full explanation either, but it's likely at least part of it.
safety1st 3y ago
If the reasons are numerous, varied and mysterious, Occam's razor suggests they may not be the real reasons.
prmoustache 3y ago
I blame stress and netflix/vod binge watching more than any chemical. Go in some place where people live more outside, typically a city with warm climate close to the beach and you will see people spending less time in front of a screen, fucking all the tine and having lots of kids while being generally exposed to the same chemicals That is my experience having moved in different parts of europe. You have to take into accounts that women are finally fertile a small amount of time in each cycle. Having said that I don't think this need to be fixed. We are way too many trying to have such a wasteful standard of living for the planet to handle. I somehow regret having given birth to 2 kids in that regard.
- defrost 3y ago
  In one of the world's sunniest and most remote cities, next to a gorgeous coastline with fabulous beaches, world class surf and a very outdoor culture . . . > The total fertility rate in Greater Perth dipped from 1.76 in 2018 to 1.66 in 2021, spot on the national average. https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/baby-drought-the-suburbs-with-perth-s-lowest-fertility-rates-20221129-p5c238.html https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/baby-d...
  - prmoustache 3y ago
    yeah but you guys don't know how to dance.
    - defrost 3y ago
      au contraire - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-MucVWo-Pw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-MucVWo-Pw ( bit further north about the same coastline )
    - reducesuffering 3y ago
      Italy and Spain are everything you describe but have some of the world's worst TFR at 1.3 and 1.38 respectively.
bennettnate5 3y ago
For reference, large scale studies have indicated that infertility rates have plateaued from 1995 to 2019 [1]. Studies from years prior to 1995 indicated that fertility rates were actually _declining_ up until 1995. I've noticed a pretty common trend of assuming low fertility rates are automatically related to infertility rates, especially in discussions here on HN. The fundamental issue with low fertility is really just that less couples are starting families, and those that are starting families are having closer to 1-3 children instead of 4-7 like in times past (independent of infertility issues). [1] - https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/us-infertility-rate-plateaus https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/...

xeromal 3y ago

Just a guess but it's gonna be plastic

djmips 3y ago
"There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?"
- pyuser583 3y ago
  “I’m the future everyone will be made of plastic!”
- remarkEon 3y ago
  Clip from The Graduate, which is a fantastic film, for those unfamiliar with the reference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMtLdE5Zq-8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMtLdE5Zq-8

Wiki39366 3y ago

[dead]

aylmao 3y ago

Beyond pollutants, which isn't at all far-fetched to think is affecting fertility rates, there's also just life. I know plenty of people who want to have kids, but there's a lot of reasons to wait before having them. The later one waits, the harder (physically) it is to have kids.

kitsunesoba 3y ago
The most common one I imagine is finances. I think there's a lot of people who see some level of stability and financial padding on the horizon, far away but within reach given a few years. Because this group sees that glimmer, they chase it and hold off on having kids in hopes of reducing the chances of ending up in dire straits thanks to the expenses that come building a family. The argument against this is that impoverished areas have higher birth rates, and that's probably because they don't see the glimmer. These people are more likely to have resigned themselves to their fate of being poor and kids either don't change that equation or even add value (as they can serve as farmhands and such). If we rewind several decades to when long-term financial stability wasn't so difficult to achieve, the birth rate wasn't an issue. People achieved stability when young and started having kids. If we want to bring the birthrate back up, I think it's going to be necessary to make that possible again.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

mdorazio 3y ago

How old is your age group? I noticed the same thing among my friends, but then also noticed they all didn't start having kids until mid-30s. It turns out career-oriented women are choosing to start having kids much later in their lives than in previous decades, which is definitely a compounding factor.

COGlory 3y ago
Late 20s to early 30s mostly. Some have been trying for years though.
- volkl48 3y ago
  As point of comparison - mean age of first birth for a woman in 1970 was 21.4. In 2017 it was 26.8. In the kinds of places people on this site usually hail from, it was near 30. (MA being oldest, at 29.3) Being quite a few years older than when people typically had kids a generation ago, is probably going to result in some differences in how easy it is. Not saying that's a full explanation either, but it's likely at least part of it.

safety1st 3y ago

If the reasons are numerous, varied and mysterious, Occam's razor suggests they may not be the real reasons.

prmoustache 3y ago

I blame stress and netflix/vod binge watching more than any chemical. Go in some place where people live more outside, typically a city with warm climate close to the beach and you will see people spending less time in front of a screen, fucking all the tine and having lots of kids while being generally exposed to the same chemicals That is my experience having moved in different parts of europe. You have to take into accounts that women are finally fertile a small amount of time in each cycle. Having said that I don't think this need to be fixed. We are way too many trying to have such a wasteful standard of living for the planet to handle. I somehow regret having given birth to 2 kids in that regard.

defrost 3y ago
In one of the world's sunniest and most remote cities, next to a gorgeous coastline with fabulous beaches, world class surf and a very outdoor culture . . . > The total fertility rate in Greater Perth dipped from 1.76 in 2018 to 1.66 in 2021, spot on the national average. https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/baby-drought-the-suburbs-with-perth-s-lowest-fertility-rates-20221129-p5c238.html https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/baby-d...
- prmoustache 3y ago
  yeah but you guys don't know how to dance.
  - defrost 3y ago
    au contraire - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-MucVWo-Pw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-MucVWo-Pw ( bit further north about the same coastline )
  - reducesuffering 3y ago
    Italy and Spain are everything you describe but have some of the world's worst TFR at 1.3 and 1.38 respectively.

bennettnate5 3y ago

For reference, large scale studies have indicated that infertility rates have plateaued from 1995 to 2019 [1]. Studies from years prior to 1995 indicated that fertility rates were actually _declining_ up until 1995. I've noticed a pretty common trend of assuming low fertility rates are automatically related to infertility rates, especially in discussions here on HN. The fundamental issue with low fertility is really just that less couples are starting families, and those that are starting families are having closer to 1-3 children instead of 4-7 like in times past (independent of infertility issues). [1] - https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/us-infertility-rate-plateaus https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/...