The last time I saw my mother for lunch we talked about the current state of sperm count in Europe. As I munched on my salad, she insisted it was medically proven that the decline – when compared to the 1930’s levels – had been drastic in Western-European males. The first time I had heard this was from a black-supremacist who argued that Europeans were doomed to disappear due to this particularly grievous problem. A strong argument along this line is our hideous fertility rates – currently something less than 1.5 children per couple, meaning we have one for ourselves and share half of the following one with the next-door-neighbor. But even before the lettuce started to be digested by my anxious stomach fluids, I contested this un-heavenly view with my arsenal of social reasons: mentalities, lifestyles, how it’s hard and getting harder to have kids… the whole nine yards. Yet, since my optimism is usually low on Tuesdays, and since I haven’t anything better to say, I shall explore this medical data to see what comes out of it.
Leaving out my old man – one of ’em Spanish stallions who brought 5 of God’s creatures into this cruel world –, things don’t look too good for guys in Europe. Basically, the story goes like this: (Swan et al., 1997) from 1938 to 1990 sperm densities in the United States have shown an average annual decrease of 1.5 million sperm per milliliter of collected sample, or about 1.5 percent per year, while those in European countries have declined at about twice that rate (3.1 percent per year). The drop in Australia has also been of 3%, with Denmark being one of the most alarming cases. The rest of the world seems to be doing fine. The classical study (Carlsen et al., 1992) says sperm counts have gradually fallen 40–50% over the last 50 years. Cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, pollution, chemicals exposure or “tight trousers” are usually blamed.
The weird thing is that Europe’s levels were 50% higher that the US at the beginning, so they have basically both reached the same level today, which is roughly the same as the other non-Western countries (see graph, click image to enlarge). So unfortunately we have to settle with being the same as the Third World. Alarming, isn’t it? I think someone should study the relationship between Imperialism and sperm count. This may be what has screwed Europe’s pull. In that case, I’m sure Iraq must have done a lot for virility in the States; a before-after sperm count on Mr. Bush should shed a lot of light on this.
Leaving the tons of criticism aside, there seems to be no clear link between this alarming fall and infertility. The general decline has been from 113 million sperm per milliliter in 1938 to 66 million in 1990. This downward trend is still far from the 20 million minimum necessary for the bird and the bees stories to be taught to a new generation. Except for the Danish, men can rest assure. Or can they? Infertility is more visible today than ever, and the doubts are now being addressed to men (see graph, click image to enlarge).
The most amusing explanation I found was that The naughty or thoughtful wife effect might be failing: “Prior to the introduction of DNA testing to establish paternity, many women who suspected that their husbands were infertile, quietly found themselves another lover with whom to procreate. In my own laboratory we observed several cases where women had surreptitiously resolved the problem because they didn’t think that their husbands would cope with the knowledge that they were infertile. Traditional songs about the escapades of males who worked in door-to-door jobs were not all fanciful! The elimination of these types of jobs might have contributed to the current interest in male infertility”.
In the UK The Independent published the results of a study according to which 1 out of every 25 British fathers (4%) were bringing up a child that wasn’t really his. More that one seemed unsure and the demand for DNA testing sky-rocketed. In a survey of published studies of DNA Paternity tests performed between 1950 and 2004, researchers from the Liverpool John Moores University found that estimates of non-paternity ranged between 1% and 30%.
Biopaternidad, a Spanish DNA testing company, launched a Father’s Day advertising campaign last week that read: “Father’s Day, or is it?” (Día del Padre, ¿o no?). They offer a free test in three days which you can do from home through mail. 24-hours results cost 400€. In Spain there are 4,000 paternity tests a year, compared to about 20,000 in the UK, 55,000 in Germany and then the US, with 142,000 tests in 1991 and 310,490 in 2001.
Leaving out my old man – one of ’em Spanish stallions who brought 5 of God’s creatures into this cruel world –, things don’t look too good for guys in Europe. Basically, the story goes like this: (Swan et al., 1997) from 1938 to 1990 sperm densities in the United States have shown an average annual decrease of 1.5 million sperm per milliliter of collected sample, or about 1.5 percent per year, while those in European countries have declined at about twice that rate (3.1 percent per year). The drop in Australia has also been of 3%, with Denmark being one of the most alarming cases. The rest of the world seems to be doing fine. The classical study (Carlsen et al., 1992) says sperm counts have gradually fallen 40–50% over the last 50 years. Cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, pollution, chemicals exposure or “tight trousers” are usually blamed.
The weird thing is that Europe’s levels were 50% higher that the US at the beginning, so they have basically both reached the same level today, which is roughly the same as the other non-Western countries (see graph, click image to enlarge). So unfortunately we have to settle with being the same as the Third World. Alarming, isn’t it? I think someone should study the relationship between Imperialism and sperm count. This may be what has screwed Europe’s pull. In that case, I’m sure Iraq must have done a lot for virility in the States; a before-after sperm count on Mr. Bush should shed a lot of light on this.
Leaving the tons of criticism aside, there seems to be no clear link between this alarming fall and infertility. The general decline has been from 113 million sperm per milliliter in 1938 to 66 million in 1990. This downward trend is still far from the 20 million minimum necessary for the bird and the bees stories to be taught to a new generation. Except for the Danish, men can rest assure. Or can they? Infertility is more visible today than ever, and the doubts are now being addressed to men (see graph, click image to enlarge).
The most amusing explanation I found was that The naughty or thoughtful wife effect might be failing: “Prior to the introduction of DNA testing to establish paternity, many women who suspected that their husbands were infertile, quietly found themselves another lover with whom to procreate. In my own laboratory we observed several cases where women had surreptitiously resolved the problem because they didn’t think that their husbands would cope with the knowledge that they were infertile. Traditional songs about the escapades of males who worked in door-to-door jobs were not all fanciful! The elimination of these types of jobs might have contributed to the current interest in male infertility”.
In the UK The Independent published the results of a study according to which 1 out of every 25 British fathers (4%) were bringing up a child that wasn’t really his. More that one seemed unsure and the demand for DNA testing sky-rocketed. In a survey of published studies of DNA Paternity tests performed between 1950 and 2004, researchers from the Liverpool John Moores University found that estimates of non-paternity ranged between 1% and 30%.Biopaternidad, a Spanish DNA testing company, launched a Father’s Day advertising campaign last week that read: “Father’s Day, or is it?” (Día del Padre, ¿o no?). They offer a free test in three days which you can do from home through mail. 24-hours results cost 400€. In Spain there are 4,000 paternity tests a year, compared to about 20,000 in the UK, 55,000 in Germany and then the US, with 142,000 tests in 1991 and 310,490 in 2001.
Well, where does this leave us? Nowhere new. This is the same old story. Despite what our current sperm count might be, it is still safer to say the kid looks like his mother.
2 comments:
Vi una pelicula no hace mucho tiempo, se llama "the children of men" de Alfonso Cuaron, plantea ke en un futuro no muy lejano todas las mujeres son infertiles, una situacion que muy bien puede pasar. Es el fin del mundo sin niños, c crea una guerra!! Muy interesante, Deberian verla.
Why? Mom ate too much beef.
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