Dr Paul Clayton 2013<\/p>\n
Sometimes it is necessary for the old order to fail before a new order can be considered,
\nparticularly when there are powerful groups (health insurance companies, the pharmaceutical
\nindustry, the medical profession) with vested interests in the status quo. Most of us
\nignore warnings that the old system is at the point of failure until they are couched in
\nlanguage that touches us. Here is such a warning.<\/p>\n
It comes from France, where a recent nationwide survey has shown that male sperm
\ncounts are falling precipitously (Rolland et al \u201912). Researchers found that during the 16 years
\nbetween 1989 and 2005, sperm counts in French men progressively dropped by an average of 32.3%. Numbers of normally formed sperm also fell by a third.<\/p>\n
The French results confirm research over the past 20 years that has shown sperm counts
\ndeclining in many countries (ie Jorgensen et al \u201911, Haimov-Kochman et al \u201912), and indicate that masculinity itself is under threat. Further evidence for this comes from the rise in rates of testicular cancer which have doubled in the last 30 years, high rates of prostate cancer
\n(the second leading cause of cancer death in males in the West) and increasing rates of other
\nmale sexual disorders such as undescended testes.<\/p>\n
Dr Joelle Le Moal, an environmental health epidemiologist and one of the study’s authors,
\ndescribed the French findings as \u201c\u2026 a serious public health warning.\u201d Richard Sharpe, the
\ninternationally renowned professor of reproductive health at the University of Edinburgh,
\nagreed. \u201cThere can be little doubt that the decline in sperm counts is real,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cSomething in our modern lifestyle, diet or environment is causing this and it is getting
\nprogressively worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nature has engineered a good deal of redundancy into us, and healthy men produce far
\nmore sperms than necessary for conception, but we are reaching the point where fertility is
\nbeing substantially compromised. In the 1940s, semen samples from young men averaged
\nover 100 million sperms per ml. Now sperm counts in the majority of 20-year-old
\nEuropean men are so low that we are close to the crucial tipping point of 40 million\/ml,
\nwhich is where sub-fertility kicks in. In Denmark, 40% of young men are below that figure
\n(Andersson et al \u201908), and the French are in the same bateau. Significant and increasing
\nnumbers of men are presenting with counts below 15 million\/ml\u2014well into the infertile range.<\/p>\n
The causes of falling sperm counts are not understood, but the evidence indicates that
\nenvironmental toxins and a lousy diet both play a role. It is important to note that fertility
\nrates have not yet shown any untoward variations (ie Mascarenhas et al \u201912). However, if sperm
\ncounts continue to fall at the current rate, our children and grandchildren will experience
\never-increasing rates of infertility and human populations will start an exponentially
\naccelerating collapse by around 2030.<\/p>\n
If this is not, finally, a call to action to the scientifically illiterate and predominantly
\nmale graduates who currently lord it over us, I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n
REFERENCES<\/p>\n
Andersson AM, J\u00f8rgensen N, Main KM, Toppari J, Rajpert-De Meyts E, Leffers H,
\nJuul A, Jensen TK, Skakkebaek NE. Adverse trends in male reproductive health:
\nwe may have reached a crucial ‘tipping point’. Int J Androl. 2008 Apr;31(2):74-80.<\/p>\n
Haimov-Kochman R, Har-Nir R, Ein-Mor E, Ben-Shoshan V, Greenfield C, Eldar I, Bdolah Y,
\nHurwitz A. Is the quality of donated semen deteriorating? Findings from a 15 year longitudinal analysis of weekly sperm samples. Isr Med Assoc J. 2012 Jun;14(6):372-7<\/p>\n
J\u00f8rgensen N, Vierula M, Jacobsen R, Pukkala E, Perheentupa A, Virtanen HE, Skakkebaek NE, Toppari J. Recent adverse trends in semen quality and testis cancer incidence among Finnish men. Int J Androl. 2011 Aug;34(4 Pt 2):e37-48<\/p>\n
Mascarenhas MN, Flaxman SR, Boerma T, Vanderpoel S, Stevens GA. National, regional, and global trends in infertility prevalence since 1990: a systematic analysis of 277 health surveys. PLoS Med. 2012 Dec;9(12):e1001356.<\/p>\n
Rolland M, Le Moal J, Wagner V, Roy\u00e8re D, De Mouzon J. Decline in semen concentration and
\nmorphology in a sample of 26 609 men close to general population between 1989 and 2005 in France.
\nHum Reprod. 2012 Dec 4<\/p>\n
Xie WC, Chan MH, Mak KC, Chan WT, He M. Trends in the incidence of 15 common cancers in Hong Kong, 1983-2008. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2012;13(8):3911-6. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"