Poll of the Day > Declining Global Sperm Count Could Threaten Humankind Survival...

(+) Yeah! (+)

Global figures suggest sperm concentration has halved in
40 years - and the rate of decline is accelerating.
The research draws on data from 53 countries and shows
that total sperm counts (TSC) and sperm concentration
(SC) have suffered in recent years, declining at over 1%
per year. In fact, the study showed that the dwindling
counts have only accelerated since the 2000s.
While the study could not categorically indicate what
contributed to this catastrophic fall, the authors postulate
that disturbances to the reproductive tract during fetal
life could lead to lifetime reproductive dysfunction. In
addition, poor lifestyle choices and dangerous
environmental chemical levels could exacerbate the
issue.

I see this as an absolute win

"While sperm count is an imperfect proxy for fertility, SC and TSC are closely linked to fertility chances (Guzick et al., 2001). The relationship between SC and time to conception is nonlinear. Thus, past a threshold of 4050 million/ml, a higher SC does not necessarily imply a higher probability of conception. On the other hand, below that threshold, the probability of conception drops off rapidly as SC declines (Bonde et al., 1998). On a population level, the drop in mean SC from 104 to 49 million/ml that we report here implies a substantial increase in the proportion of men with delayed time to conception. Thus, SC provides the most stable and reliable measurement for comparisons within and among populations and over time."

So, a ~50% decrease since the 1970s (~1% per year) and 49 million/ml is at the upper limit of the threshold of not mattering, which means we have a good 10 years before this is an issue? Plenty of time to fix it!

Wouldn't more fucking offset the difference?

maybe my balls are just learning how to not waste sperm and will remain above the threshold. lots of possibilities, really.

I got interested in looking up the global birth rate over time, but I seem to only be coming up with fertility rate charts...like, if a larger amount of women exist, but are having less children, the birth rate could stay the same or increase while the fertility rate goes down, right??? I'd assume the global birth rate is going up since we're still experiencing population increase as opposed to a constant or decrease...

maybe my balls are just learning how to not waste sperm and will remain above the threshold. lots of possibilities, really.

I see this as an absolute win