Declining sperm counts will have consequences.
Mother Nature only wants one thing from a man: for him to produce sperm and deposit it in a fertile woman. The man as a business. And the sperm as a dividend that is released two to three times a week, normally 50-500 million at a time.
Nature needs abundance: below 40 million, reproduction begins to struggle.
Sperm cells were first seen by cloth merchant Anthony van Leuwenhoek in Delft.
He had invented a very primitive microscope. That was 350 years ago.
He regarded the sperm cells as little animals, each containing a preformed human being.
They have been counted like blood cells for 150 years. The count is not an opinion, but a measurement result that cannot be changed, only interpreted.
In 1992, the first report came from Denmark about a dramatic decline in sperm counts since around 1950. After scepticism, the findings were confirmed in Western countries.
In 2017, a survey showed a decline of around one per cent per year to less than half. The male sex hormone testosterone is falling in parallel. Involuntarly childless couples are becoming more frequent.
As a result, male fertility will decline from around 2045. Devastating for any old-age pension. Without a reversal of the trend, the only option is to hope for the retort or fertile southern migrants.
But in 2022, the latest findings show an accelerated decline to 2 per cent per year. Also in Asia, Africa and South America. No trend reversal. Reproduction problems even before 2045.And little hope for fertile southern migrants.
There is a lot of talk about old age pensions in many media. but the decline in sperm count has gone largely unmentioned in this context.
As for causes the falling testosterone levels hint to hormone imbalance. There is a lot of evidence to blame the plasticisers in plastic. They distort hormone effects, and we ingest them through milk bottles and yoghurt pots, among other things. I elaborated on this here: Sperm Loss by Castration in the Womb - by Lukas Fierz (substack.com)
The French parliament has just banned many of these chemicals. And the parliaments of other countries?
Yes I know, probably they are doing nothing as always. Not so bad in view of overpopulation. So we could go back to business as usual, as with bees, other insects and songbirds.
Nevertheless, there are some questions that keep me going. But this is perhaps for another time.
