ACX had an interesting post about this: <a href="https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/declining-sperm-count-much-more-than" rel="nofollow">https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/declining-sperm-count-...</a><p>It gave me the impression that there's not a consensus that sperm counts prior to 30 years ago have been declining steadily, let alone agreement on the overall causes. The Euronews article seems to be a write-up of one meta-analysis rather than an overview of the current state of knowledge.
The article isn't very good. It mentions some stuff and doesn't follow up on it (smoking - aren't smoking rates way down?) and alludes to the fact that they're talking about men over 40, saying quality decreases at that age, but it should hypothetically decrease later. All told I didn't learn much.
I keep seeing this and reports of decreased sexual drive and I always notice one environmental factor lacking from the studies, population. I go out to more rural areas and can't help but notice that people don't seem to have issues making babies in those areas, big families are quite common and most adults seem to have kids. Perhaps there is a biological factor and these things decrease in response to living in a high population area, increased pollution and high population density do go hand in hand. Anyone know if there have been any studies on this?
If it's pollution, which pollution?<p>This study lists the likely suspects (scroll down for the table), but is not quantitative enough to show which have the highest impact.<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7807371/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7807371/</a><p>My guess: it's lead from gasoline- we've contaminated all top-soil with it. The effects are going to be around for a long time.
From the linked study (<a href="https://rbej.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12958-023-01054-0" rel="nofollow">https://rbej.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12958-023-0...</a>):<p>> We included 190 studies in our analysis. In the group of associated health conditions, varicocele (MD = 13.62%, CI: 9.39–17.84) and impaired glucose tolerance (MD = 13.75%, CI: 6.99–20.51) had the most significant increase in SDF. Among malignancies, testicular tumors had the highest impact, with a maximum of MD = 11.3% (CI: 7.84–14.76). Among infections, the overall effects of both Chlamydia and HPV were negligible. Of lifestyle factors, smoking had the most disruptive effect on SDF – an increase of 9.19% (CI: 4.33–14.06). Different periods of sexual abstinence did not show significant variations in SDF values. Age seemed to have a more drastic effect on SDF from age 50 onwards, with a mean difference of 12.58% (CI: 7.31–17.86). Pollution also had a detrimental effect – 9.68% (CI: 6.85–12.52).
I only read the article, not the paper.<p>I didn’t see stress mentioned.<p>Perhaps it is difficult to define/measure or lack of consensus measures across studies?
Do we have a good amount of data for speed counts in the past? I have never had a count and I assume unless you are in a situation with fertility issues , are donating or part of this study a count has never been done.
Sometimes it becomes difficult to say that anarcho-primitivists have no good argument at all.<p>I'm not for living in the forest and obviously, technology has a lot of benefits, but maybe technology should be used in moderation, when one can clearly demonstrate it has a lot of benefits and very little costs.
Their hypothesis that pollution, varicocele and insulin resistance are the main contributors seems sound because the first and the last have been increasing proportionally during the same time frame as the effect in question.
What a worthless article. Smoking, drinking, age all things everyone knew, and then "pollution." We clicked the link yo know what kind of pollution!
Wasnt there a research article recently at top of HN, which concluded that the sperm count losses were directly related to office jobs and in particular....sitting?
I suspect sitting is one factor.<p>It is bad for prostate/nerve health. circulation. and by simply being incompatible with exercise.<p>If you're older, try a standing desk and see if peeing and other things improve. (might take a few weeks)