Spermageddon: Mend your ways or face extinction? Try to imagine a world where lovestruck young couples make their first romantic commitment not with a ring or a joint mortgage, but by going to a cryogenics centre to have their sperm and eggs stored in ice until the day they can finally afford to start a family together. That outlandish scenario may be one step closer to reality, though, following claims this week that male fertility in the Western world has gone into freefall. Scientists warned that sperm counts — the number of sperm in a semen sample — have more than halved in the past 4. New findings show that between 1. Western countries fell by an average of 1. In the span of a single generation — about 2.
In the span of a single generation — about 2. Hagai Levine, an epidemiologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, led the international research team that scrutinised data on almost 4. Dr Levine called the results ‘shocking’ — and, indeed, it is the most robust evidence to date of an unfolding disaster. Because this crisis is not simply about male sperm. It is the starkest possible evidence of the catastrophic damage we are doing to ourselves and our world.
For all the evidence indicates that the fall in sperm counts and quality is a direct result of pollution. It is as though Mother Earth is giving us a stark choice: mend your ways or face extinction. Of most immediate concern are fertility rates, which have been steadily falling in the Western world for the past three decades as women have fewer children (or none). At the same time, infertility problems have risen. Most of this has been blamed on women leaving it later in life to start families and having fewer available eggs. This, however, is an oversimplistic explanation, as in up to half the cases male infertility is a major factor.
And this is an alarming symptom of a much wider health emergency — for male fertility is a ‘canary in the coalmine’ for the status of overall human health. This was demonstrated this year by a Danish study that had followed more than 1. Men found to have low sperm counts at the start of the study were, on average, admitted to hospital for serious illness seven years earlier than the others. In particular, they were at much higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The report concluded that ‘semen quality is a strong biomarker of general health’.
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Scientists have not conclusively identified all the factors that are imperilling sperm counts and human health in general. But the evidence points to an alarming overall conclusion: that the pollutants that fill our world are steadily annihilating us.
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One of the major culprits appears to be a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA), which is widely used in plastic wrappers and containers. Worse still, the damaging effect of BPA on sperm counts is aggravated by another problem: obesity. BPA, which behaves in a similar way to the female hormone oestrogen, can leach into food and liquids, and is also present as dust in the air we breathe. Numerous laboratory studies have shown it is toxic to human sperm and especially damaging to the formation of new sperm cells. It is of far more significance than traces of oestrogen — derived from the contraceptive pill — which have been found in drinking water supplies and which some scientists argue are a factor in falling sperm counts. Plastics are a huge problem — but who can live free of them nowadays?
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They are ubiquitous. Manufacturers have begun to introduce alternatives to BPA, but early studies suggest they could be just as harmful. Worse still, the damaging effect of BPA on sperm counts is aggravated by another problem: obesity.
It seems the chemical reacts with acids in body fat to interfere with semen production. Meanwhile, chemicals and additives in junk foods are also implicated in the sperm crisis. The cheap fats commonly used — such as trans fats, and saturated fats high in Omega- 6 such as corn oil and sunflower oil — are all known to harm sperm counts. Adding to this devil’s brew are chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in pesticides such as DDT, industrial chemicals such as fire retardants and cleaning fluids. POPs are also belched from factories as industrial by- products.
As a consequence of that contamination, POPs also occur in the food chain. In a Norwegian study published last year, scientists exposed infant female mice to a daily level of POPs equivalent to the amount humans unwittingly consume each day from a standard European diet. Scientists found that when these mice matured and reproduced, their male offspring had a significantly lowered ability to produce sperm — and the sperm they did produce showed alarmingly high levels of DNA damage. As if this environmental exposure were not enough, electromagnetic radiation from wireless internet connection is also believed to be a factor in male fertility. In a controversial 2. Turkish researchers claimed that daily exposure to wireless internet could significantly reduce both sperm count and sperm quality. So what can be done about all of this?
One of the greatest challenges to British fertility is that couples are leaving it ever later to start families as they focus on education, careers and achieving some financial security.'Carl Djerassi shocked me by suggesting young couples should freeze their eggs and sperm, then spend three decades building their wealth and career status before relying on high- tech reproductive technology to start their families in comfort'According to British fertility expert Professor Allan Pacey, even young couples can achieve pregnancy with comparatively low sperm counts without being aware of a problem, thanks to their youthful fecundity. But once they are in their 3. Some 1. 5 years ago I interviewed Carl Djerassi, the inventor of the contraceptive pill.
He shocked me by suggesting young couples should freeze their eggs and sperm, then spend three decades building their wealth and career status before relying on high- tech reproductive technology to start their families in comfort. It sounded outlandish then, but now other experts are suggesting this as a perfectly sensible solution. In 2. 01. 5, Dr Kevin Smith, a bioethicist at Abertay University in Dundee, called for the NHS to start freezing the sperm of all 1. UK, as this could enable the men to have children later in life.
The trend is already taking off in America, where medical cryogenic- freezing centres report increasing demand from men in their 2. But is this really the future we want — a technological dystopia as Aldous Huxley predicted in Brave New World, where babies are born in industrial hatcheries and conditioned according to the needs of their society? There are alternatives.
We could follow the example of more fecund first- generation immigrant couples. UK population statistics show they start having children typically in their 2. However, the statistics show that their second- generation offspring move much closer to the established British norm of starting families later, no doubt for career and economic reasons.
What we need, then, is strong backing from government to support families — such as hefty tax breaks — to encourage the next generation to become parents at a younger age. And perhaps we also need our young men to take responsibility for their health, for the sake of their sperm and their own longevity. Studies show that losing weight and exercising boosts testosterone levels — and sperm counts — while smoking and cannabis use have an adverse impact on semen quality. That way we could help to avert what scientists might call ‘spermageddon’. After all, if you were a human stud farmer, would you choose to breed from our current stock?