Some bad news for the men out there: a new study has found that both the sperm count and concentration in men around the world has declined significantly over the course of the last four decades.
Down to 47 million sperm per milliliter in 2011 from 99 million per milliliter in 1973, sperm count fell 59% while sperm concentration declined by 52%. Unfortunately, there aren't any signs of slowing down as time goes on.
While we can see a problem here, scientists aren't completely sure what's causing it. Some of the obvious red flags are exposures to certain chemicals, which can stem from several things, including:
• Building materials in houses
• Cigarette smoking or use of other harmful substances
• Medications taken
• Pesticides used in local communities
Scientists aren't ruling out other potential causes either, such as temperature fluctuations via climate change and poor diet, among other things.
More research is necessary to determine what's causing this to occur, but if one thing's for sure right now, it's that we need to find a solution soon or else average sperm counts may continue to drop and could impact human reproduction.
