• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Sperm counts among western men have halved in last 40 years

Kinyou said:
How does this lead to women running things?
Click to expand...

giphy.gif
 
As far as championing lower birthrates for the future of the planet, in this case, that's like celebrating an obese individual losing a lot of weight. Except none of it is fat, and it's all vital organ tissue and muscle.

Having the individuals with the most resources, education, etc. with the lowest reproduction rates is a disaster in the making, and boy are we getting good at it.

perfectchaos007 said:
Dietitians: Its due to all the processed foods we eat, and obesity
Religious conservatives: This is Gods punishment for birth control and people having too much sex without the purpose of procreation.
Climatologists: Due to rising global temperatures, the human body's energy is moving more towards cooling the body than producing sperm
Freeballers Association: Sperm needs the testicles to be at the perfect temperature to form, and wearing underwear stifles the process.
Liberals: Lack of universal healthcare has given male testicles chronic depression.
Vegans: Its due to all the meat we consume
nihilists: We're half way there.
Click to expand...

Why is this the one that got me? Hahaha
 
I just had a kid. Evolution bullet dodged suckshs! Gooood luck grandkids lol
 
Betty said:
Immigrants are easily picking up the slack by having larger families so there's nothing to worry about here.
Click to expand...

Naw.
It's the immigration itself that's helping. Once they get here they're barely pulling their weight in terms of baby making.
 
WriterGK said:
Sounds reasonably. I do hear and read there is a lot of aging problem in Europe and North America, but surely even here people are still bringing a lot of kids into the world right? Would it actually be that bad if there would be slightly less people born vs people dying. Cause everyday there are being born around like 360.00 people into the world and only like 151.000 die everyday. So it's not bad right if that first number would decline? I know the numbers from movie Inferno are quite real. Source btw: http://www.ecology.com/birth-death-rates/
Click to expand...
Problem is more economics. Our system is based on growth. If your population declines, that is a problem. You need a certain amount of population growth to replace people and add a few to keep your economy growing.

Added problem is that those population are aging rapidly. Especially in Europe, America a bit less due to immigration there. So we end up with a ton of old people who are not in the workforce, but still need to be paid for. These welfare systems worked when the cost was distributed among a large young workforce. Now we have less young people, and we live longer so need to be paid for longer also - including rising healthcare costs that come with it -, but we have not adapted to that enough.

So yes, population worldwide is growing, but multiple countries are (almost) below replacement level. Most growth will come from Africa, and then especially Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria is set to explode over the coming decades for example.

Less people wouldn't be a bad thing at all, but we need to adapt our economic systems for it, otherwise we simply can not pay for it all.
 
Obesity, sugar, and age.

Obesity has GOT to be the number one, and it spins directly into age (people gain weight as they get older)

Sometimes its diet, even when obesity isn't there, sometimes it just poor education (one time at a party I heard a lady around age 30 that said they try every month. I made the joke to her husband that hey at least you get some every day... let's just say when I mentioned that fertility is more than 1 day a month it opened his eyes (and 10 months later they had a baby...)

But those may be just a American things, I'm sure that doesn't explain it for other western countries.

TL:DR: obesity and age make it difficult to have kids. If you want kids It really does matter if you start before 30. 32 is the magic number for women, and most doctors won't see you unless you have tried for years (yes plural).
 
i remember reading a report 10-15 years ago about how some researchers were surprised that when they were testing for phytoestrogens they couldnt establish a control without hormones. Turns out test tube glass was the source. Test tube glass. The theory im going with phytoestrogens in the environment from industrial pollution.
 
When I ponder on my son and the 10 years it took to have him, finally settling on IVF to make it work, I look back on my life and wonder what might have been different had I not spent so much god-damned money on condoms.
 
What is this thread. Decreased fertility is a bad thing. I can't tell the sarcasm from the trolls.

Imperfected said:
Is it possible this is a herd adaptation to overpopulation? What do sperm counts in Asia look like? Is anyone checking out Asian sperm?
Click to expand...
It's global. Even third world countries are reporting drops. It is almost certainly pesticide or food related.
 
Imperfected said:
Is it possible this is a herd adaptation to overpopulation? What do sperm counts in Asia look like? Is anyone checking out Asian sperm?
Click to expand...

Like it says, it's only Western men that have this problem. Not men in Latin America, Asia or Africa. So it has something to do with the regular day to day life of men in western countries. Some folks in this thread are probably on to it when they mention things like sedentary men, obesity, poor diet, xenoestrogens, etc...

My guess is that it's related to something all men in these countries are taking in, a staple food or something like the water supply.
 
Espada said:
Like it says, it's only Western men that have this problem. Not men in Latin America, Asia or Africa. So it has something to do with the regular day to day life of men in western countries. Some folks in this thread are probably on to it when they mention things like sedentary men, obesity, poor diet, xenoestrogens, etc...

My guess is that it's related to something all men in these countries are taking in, a staple food or something like the water supply.
Click to expand...

Actually, that injects a lot of mystery into the equation, since bad diets and obesity are a problem in many Latin American countries. There has to be something a bit more specific than just "generally poor health".
 
Imperfected said:
Actually, that injects a lot of mystery into the equation, since bad diets and obesity are a problem in many Latin American countries. There has to be something a bit more specific than just "generally poor health".
Click to expand...

Well, what are the western men doing that the other parts of the world aren't? Maybe the men in those regions are doing the same thing, but we're simply consuming more of the bad shit at a greater rate.

As a side note, I remember a story a while back about male fish in rivers and streams being fucked up by the amounts of phytoestrogen we're putting into the water through various means. Stuff like malformed genitals, deformities, etc...
 
perfectchaos007 said:
Dietitians: Its due to all the processed foods we eat, and obesity
Religious conservatives: This is Gods punishment for birth control and people having too much sex without the purpose of procreation.
Climatologists: Due to rising global temperatures, the human body's energy is moving more towards cooling the body than producing sperm
Freeballers Association: Sperm needs the testicles to be at the perfect temperature to form, and wearing underwear stifles the process.
Liberals: Lack of universal healthcare has given male testicles chronic depression.
Vegans: Its due to all the meat we consume
nihilists: We're half way there.
Click to expand...

Anyone else get Livin' on a Prayer in their head at the end there?
 
I wouldn't be surprised if steroid use has had an effect too. I recently read steroids can reduce your sperm count and can even cause infertility among other side effects. A lot of young guys have become obsessed with the gym and getting the "ripped" look.
 
Causation/correlation with frequency of (involuntarily) childless couples would be interesting.

On the face of it, I would assume that their number has gone up as sperm counts have decreased?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

I feel like Man’s timeless obsession with wacking off has driven much of technology in the last 40 years
35
1K
Plies replied
It took me 40+ years to appreciate the stars
27
1K
FoxMcChief replied
MTV to Shut Down Music Channels After 40 Years as Paramount Restructures Global Network
2
90
2K
DragoonKain replied
Just turned 40, what to know?
2
69
1K
GnomeChimpsky replied
A message to my 40+ old gaffers and gamers
2
81
2K
lachesis replied
Top Bottom