The human race may be in danger as the sperm count continues to drop, an epidemiologist said, according to Axios.
Mt. Sinai Medical School epidemiologist Shanna Swan co-authored an analysis in 2017 that found that the total sperm count in the Western world decreased by 59% between 1973 and 2011.
Swan is the author of a new book called “Countdown: how our modern world is threatening sperm count, altering male and female reproductive development and threatening the future of the human race”, which is based on previous conclusions from his study of sperm count.
“If you look at the sperm count curve and project it forward – which is always risky – it hits zero in 2045,” said Swan, noting that the average man would have no viable sperm, according to Axios. “This is a little worrying, to say the least.”
The terrible discoveries can leave the world struggling to procreate.
Between 1964 and 2018, the global fertility rate fell from 5.06 to 2.04. To make things more worrying, many countries around the world, including the United States, have fertility rates below replacement levels, according to a study by Yale Global. The affected nations represent about half of the world’s population, according to the study.
“In some parts of the world, the average woman in her early twenties today is less fertile than her grandmother was at 35,” wrote Swan, according to the New York Post (NYP).
Still, there are other factors that contribute to falling fertility rates, in addition to sperm count, such as birth control, personal choice and the rising costs of raising a child. These other factors, however, do not close the gap for people who say they want children, but do not have them, according to Swan.
A three-day-old baby from the neonatology station at the Buergerhospital clinic expects to be transferred to another hospital on September 2, 2017 in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, as evacuation measures are underway due to the discovery of a British 2nd bomb. World War .
(FRANK RUMPENHORST / DPA / AFP via Getty Images)
Swan said the rising rates of spontaneous abortions and other signs point to the fact that there are biological factors at play, according to Axios.
Testosterone levels also dropped in young adults and teenagers, according to a report in the Urology Times Journal. To combat declining levels, prescriptions for testosterone therapies more than doubled between 2010 and 2013, according to Forbes.
Swan says that “90 percent of men can have their sperm count drop to zero while they are [testosterone replacement therapies], ”According to the NYP.
“If women want to have a baby, they often say to them, ‘Clean up your act,'” wrote Swan, according to the NYP. “But it is probably more important for men to do that.” (RELATED: The United States has had fewer babies this year than in the past 30 years: report)
She notes that there is an increase in boys with gender abnormalities and early signs of puberty among girls, according to Axios. These findings, said Swan, show that there are chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system in everyday items that may be affecting fertility.
“Chemicals in our environment and unhealthy lifestyle practices in our modern world are upsetting our hormonal balance, causing varying degrees of reproductive destruction,” wrote Swan, according to Axios.
These chemicals include phthalates and bisphenol-A, which are found in common items like plastics, pesticides, cosmetics and even some receipts, according to Axios. Phthalates, which can make plastics flexible and allow beauty products to absorb aromas, have been linked to a decrease in the production of hormones like testosterone, according to a 2015 study by the National Library of Medicine.
Other factors like smoking tobacco and marijuana and obesity can also affect fertility rates between men and women, according to Axios. Some scientists have criticized studies that associate endocrine disrupting chemicals with fertility problems, according to the Science Media Center. But, as Swan notes, there are other factors at hand.
“The current state of reproductive affairs cannot continue much longer without threatening human survival,” writes Swan, according to Axios.
The Daily Caller contacted Swan, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.