Sperm Count Decrease Might Result in Species Extinction

Sperm Counts Have Halved in the Past 40 Years

While India is competing against China for the Number 1 spot in terms of population, sperm count among men in Western countries (North America, Europe, Australia & New Zealand) has been greatly decreasing, almost halved in less than 40 years, according to researchers.

Huge data analysis of more than 43,000 men showed that sperm concentration declined by 52.4% and 59.3% in terms of total sperm count. Sadly, this decrease in count and concentration are not slowing down but only increasing.

Infertility at the Threshold?
Even with such decreasing sperm count, it does not point at widespread infertility problems (count stands at 47.1 million sperm per millimeter) as the sperm count is well above the 15 million sperm threshold that is fixed as the base for infertility. The maximum disadvantage couples might face is that it might take a longer time to conceive. But, in the long run when this decline continues it might put humans at a stage where conceiving becomes a great task and infertility rates sky-rocket to an all-time high.

Female infertility issues have been the point of discussion in mankind almost in every case when couples struggle to conceive. These findings shed light on increasing male infertility rates too. The depressing fact is that the actual cause for such decrease in sperm counts is still unknown. A number of suspicions and theories exist:

• The pregnant mother’s exposure to hazardous chemicals might alter the reproductive tract of the fetus.
• Some blame global obesity rates to contribute to lesser sperm count. Read more on global obesity and its effect on health at www.firsteatright.com.
• Stress as a factor is on the cards too
• Global warming
• Adult pesticide exposure
  
  

A Bleak Future
Science has improved life expectancy by almost 25 years in the past century. But, what is life worth living without quality, health, happiness and wellness? Until we change our lifestyle, eating habits, safeguard our environment and minimize the chemicals that we are exposed to, our future looks bleak. We would face problems with conceiving and delivering healthy babies (reproduction as such) which might even lead to the extinction of human species.
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At the same time, we don’t know much about decreasing sperm count in South American, Asian and African countries which remains an area to be explored.