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Maybe there is no real proof of lower counts, and this is just bait-click. Drastically dropping, if real, would completely get our attention and be something we'd hear tons about. Since that's not the case, I'm skeptical.
Regardless, if there is any genuine decline, even a little bit, it could be the cumulative result of many changes in recent years (technologically, culturally, socially, physiologically, etc.) Just look at all the possibilities thrown out here so far. Many would be worth investigating.
I heard this story a few months ago, and I don't believe it.
This is not a major media outlet article. I would think if this were true, the World Health Organization, and the American Medical Association would make this a top priority. Men's fertility declining 50% since the 70's would be a public health crisis.
"If you read statistics that surprise you, they're likely not true" said the best statistics teacher ever. ;D
That presumes you are an informed person. An uninformed person, especially one who thinks they are informed, would be surprised by lots of things that are true. And even an informed person can fail to put their information together and thus be surprised by the outcome of factors about which they were informed.
Further, we cannot know what is "true" through statistics. For example, we almost always have samples, not a complete collection of everything. If we sample probabilistically (informally called "randomly") then we can estimate how likely our sample is to be close to the truth. But we cannot get to 100% certainty of even that (without making our range of answers infinite and thus useless (think: you earned anywhere from negative infinity to positive infinity last year--true, but useless).
SO, any statistics teacher who thinks uninformed people being surprised makes the finding that surprises them probably wrong, and who suggests statistics can tell you the truth, is very unlikely to be the best statistics teacher ever. In fact, that person is a likely to be a pretty poor stats teacher, one who does not glimpse the deeper beauty and elegance of statistics as a scientific discipline.
It is because of all the female hormones that are used to fatten up animals for quick slaughter. These hormones are also in fertilizers. The excess estrogens end up in the ocean and streams and are also affecting fish. In some species there are very few male fish being born. The estrogens in birth control pills are excreted in urine so it also gets into our water supply. Scientists know this. It is no mystery.
I don't know what's causing it, but you still only need one sperm to fertilize an egg!
And worst-case scenario just fertilize the egg in a clinic then implant it into the uterus.
The bolded isn't true, @ least not when impregnation is done the old-fashioned way, person-to-person.
For in vitro, yah, that's true enough. But I doubt that we're going to get to the point that only in vitro fertilization is carried to term. & that's just as well - genetic variation would likely be very reduced if that were the case, with potentially disastrous consequences for humanity @ large.
What's 'bad' is when people take one study as gospel.
This is why people are constantly complaining that science is 'contradicting itself'. But, no, it's not. The fact is that science is not one study. Or even two, or ten for that matter. Science aggregates data. All relevant data. Another part of the problem is not even bothering to look at the study, or even a reasonable interpretation of it by someone who is scientifically fluent, but by whoever Yahoo! assigned to crank out this article you linked. What's that person's scientific background? Probably one general ed hard science course en route to their BA in journalism. Geology 101, or something like that.
In fact, there is no consensus that global fertility rates are falling. Here's a good review of the topic. Sorry, it's not Yahoo!, so you'll have to settle for the publication of the American Urological Association: https://harryfisch.com/wp-content/up...ing-a-Myth.pdf
Was it too far down in the paragraph?
"After data was collected from 185 studies looking at sperm count and concentration in men from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand from 1973 to 2011..."
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"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
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Originally Posted by LauraC
Was it too far down in the paragraph?
"After data was collected from 185 studies looking at sperm count and concentration in men from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand from 1973 to 2011..."
I don't think they mentioned a specific study, did they? This just sounds like a mouth full of marbles article.
It would be one thing to cite an actual study, and link it, rather than just saying 185 studies.
Dioxins are environmental pollutants. They belong to the so-called “dirty dozen” - a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Dioxins are of concern because of their highly toxic potential. Experiments have shown they affect a number of organs and systems.
Although formation of dioxins is local, environmental distribution is global. Dioxins are found throughout the world in the environment. The highest levels of these compounds are found in some soils, sediments and food, especially dairy products, meat, fish and shellfish. Very low levels are found in plants, water and air.
If its true, it could just be Mother Nature's way of saying, "Enough people already! We got to slow this stuff down for a bit."
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