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News & ArtsWednesday, December 5, 2012
Science Spermicide
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 1:35 PM
This Independent story seems like it's probably bad news:
The reproductive health of the average male is in sharp decline, the world's largest study of the quality and concentration of sperm has found.
Between 1989 and 2005, average sperm counts fell by a third in the study of 26,000 men, increasing their risk of infertility. The amount of healthy sperm was also reduced, by a similar proportion.
The findings confirm research over the past 20 years that has shown sperm counts declining in many countries across the world.
Nobody is sure why this is happening, and there's no sign that the decline is leveling off. We may have already hit Peak Sperm.
30
It's bad news because:
1) Germ line cells are fairly sensitive, so it's a bit of a canary in the public health coal mine, and what other consequences the cause of the decline might be having are still unknown;
2) Whatever it is, it's unlikely to be affecting humans alone, which is bad news for conservation and agriculture alike; and
3) Do you really want to see more demand for fertility drugs, and therefore more fucking Octomoms? I don't.
@25, the periodic stress of ancestral human lifestyles was significantly different from the continuous, ubiquitous stress of modern life in a lot of ways. There could be a multitude of factors here. Take, for example, sleep: until the modern era, there wasn't much in the way of light pollution, sleep patterns tended to be a lot more natural, and people generally didn't chronically sleep-deprive themselves. Now we do, and we're starting to document a lot of negative health effects from it. The progression of civilization is an amazing thing, don't get me wrong, but the further we come socially and technologically, the more distance we put between our current lifestyles and the sort of life we actually evolved for, and the tension that creates has consequences that we have to learn to manage.
1) Germ line cells are fairly sensitive, so it's a bit of a canary in the public health coal mine, and what other consequences the cause of the decline might be having are still unknown;
2) Whatever it is, it's unlikely to be affecting humans alone, which is bad news for conservation and agriculture alike; and
3) Do you really want to see more demand for fertility drugs, and therefore more fucking Octomoms? I don't.
@25, the periodic stress of ancestral human lifestyles was significantly different from the continuous, ubiquitous stress of modern life in a lot of ways. There could be a multitude of factors here. Take, for example, sleep: until the modern era, there wasn't much in the way of light pollution, sleep patterns tended to be a lot more natural, and people generally didn't chronically sleep-deprive themselves. Now we do, and we're starting to document a lot of negative health effects from it. The progression of civilization is an amazing thing, don't get me wrong, but the further we come socially and technologically, the more distance we put between our current lifestyles and the sort of life we actually evolved for, and the tension that creates has consequences that we have to learn to manage.
29
I'm put in mind of deer hunting policies. Five does and five bucks gives you five fawns. Five does and one buck gives you five fawns. One doe and five bucks gives you one fawn.
27
Maybe it's because our balls can't keep up with our internet porn habits ;) I wonder if they had done this study in technologically undeveloped countries whether the results would have been the same.
26
Apparently the U.S. birth rate is at its lowest since the 1920's. I for one, love hearing the sound of children playing.
25
I was going to say we're stressing our sperms away. But I think life has been much more stressful in the ancient past. Still, nature works in unexpected ways, sometimes. Maybe our balls are experiencing "global warming"!
24
Also, it is far too simplistic to assume reduced fertility based on sperm quality.
For example, the abysmal reproduction of cheetahs seen for years in captivity was assumed to be due to their low sperm counts and high number of misshapen/low-motility sperm. But there was inadequate notice taken of other aspects of cheetah biology, to wit:
1. Cheetahs are solitary and come together only briefly for breeding in the wild. The constant presence of other animals nearby in captivity suppresses reproduction (visual, olfactory, and aural cues are all likely important, so isolation needs to be done carefully).
2. Females exert active mate choice and won't necessarily conceive if put with any old male, and it's probably sexist assumptions on the part of male researchers that obscured this fact for so long. A best-candidate pool should be chosen based on known genetic background to minimize the inbreeding coefficient, and then trial introductions carried out. If a female doesn't care for her chosen mate, you're pretty much S.O.L. without more-intensive assisted-reproduction technologies.
3. Estrus in females is largely cryptic, with few behavioral cues, so ongoing monitoring of hormonal cycles (non-invasively checked by analyzing metabolite levels in excreta) is needed to time introductions of prospective mates.
If these factors are given their due, captive reproduction dramatically improves, with no detectable improvement in sperm quality of the males involved.
For example, the abysmal reproduction of cheetahs seen for years in captivity was assumed to be due to their low sperm counts and high number of misshapen/low-motility sperm. But there was inadequate notice taken of other aspects of cheetah biology, to wit:
1. Cheetahs are solitary and come together only briefly for breeding in the wild. The constant presence of other animals nearby in captivity suppresses reproduction (visual, olfactory, and aural cues are all likely important, so isolation needs to be done carefully).
2. Females exert active mate choice and won't necessarily conceive if put with any old male, and it's probably sexist assumptions on the part of male researchers that obscured this fact for so long. A best-candidate pool should be chosen based on known genetic background to minimize the inbreeding coefficient, and then trial introductions carried out. If a female doesn't care for her chosen mate, you're pretty much S.O.L. without more-intensive assisted-reproduction technologies.
3. Estrus in females is largely cryptic, with few behavioral cues, so ongoing monitoring of hormonal cycles (non-invasively checked by analyzing metabolite levels in excreta) is needed to time introductions of prospective mates.
If these factors are given their due, captive reproduction dramatically improves, with no detectable improvement in sperm quality of the males involved.
23
I'll start worrying about it when homo sapiens makes the first category of the endangered species list. In the meantime, what @1 (rotten666), @2 (Mr. M), @3 (gnarly), @5 (Bauhaus I), @7 (Rhizome), and @14 (Fistique) said. Global warming, natural resource depletion, mass extinctions, slave wages, high housing costs, and general misery will all get better with significantly fewer people.
22
he cant satisfy you with his little worm
but i can bust you out with my super sperm
http://www.angelfire.com/sk/oldskool/shg…
19
@5: Unfortunately, this probably won't happen fast enough to stop the ecological collapse of our food systems - there's too much momentum. But it's nice to see that there is a certain symmetry to our depredations. Probably has something to do with all those estrogen-imitating hydrocarbons.
18
If only I could cut down to one hand-job a day, or hold the line at two, or even three! But with the prospect of oblivion before me, I actually began to set new records for myself. Before meals. After meals. During meals. Jumping up from the dinner table, I tragically clutch at my belly—diarrhea! I cry, I have been stricken with diarrhea!—and once behind the locked bathroom door, slip over my head a pair of underpants that I have stolen from my sister's dresser and carry rolled in a handkerchief in my pocket. So galvanic is the effect of cotton panties against my mouth—so galvanic is the word "panties"—that the trajectory of my ejaculation reaches startling new heights: leaving my joint like a rocket it makes right for the light bulb overhead, where to my wonderment and horror, it hits and it hangs. Wildly in the first moment I cover my head, expecting an explosion of glass, a burst of flames—disaster, you see, is never far from my mind. Then quietly as I can I climb the radiator and remove the sizzling gob with a wad of toilet paper. I begin a scrupulous search of the shower curtain, the tub, the tile floor, the four tooth-brushes—God forbid!—and just as I am about to unlock the door, imagining I have covered my tracks, my heart lurches at the sight of what is hanging like snot to the toe of my shoe. I am the Raskolnikov of jerking off—the sticky evidence is everywhere!(Portnoy's Complaint, in case anyone was wondering.)
16
Yeah...I'm pretty sure I've also hit peak sperm. It was last weekend
And it was just...just...everywhere.
And it was just...just...everywhere.
9
Interesting. The article lists eating foods low in saturated fat as one way to improve sperm count, so I wonder if the rise in obesity is related.
8
Yeah, yeah, everybody, sperm counts falling down is great news until two decades of human infertility have left society on the brink of collapse and Clive Owen is forced to help the last pregnant woman on Earth escape the chaos through a long tracking shot.
5
And with billions and billions that the Earth's eco-system can barely handle, this is bad news because....?
2
Yeah, why is this bad news? Would you rather have the inevitable population collapse come through famine, disease and genocide?
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