Enough plastic or goodbye manhood

What if they told you that by continuing to use plastic, you would lose your manhood and lower your chances of having children? Assisted reproduction could become the only way to have children by 2045. An alarming fact. Environmental medicine professor Shanna Swan explains how chemicals in plastics are causing our fertility to decline and what we can do about it.

Shanna Swan is a professor of environmental medicine and public health at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, who studies fertility trends.

In 2017, he documented how the average sperm count among Western men has more than halved over the past 40 years. Count Down is his new book.

The problem is not the woman having children later.

According to the professor, the problem of the decline in births is not only due to the fact that women decide to have children at an older age. The problem of fertility in fact has been found in the youngest. Furthermore, there is compelling evidence that the risk of miscarriage has increased among women of all ages for the same reason: the use of plastic.

The chemicals of greatest concern to reproductive health are those that can interfere with or mimic the body’s sex hormones such as testosterone and estrogen because these make reproduction possible. They can make the body believe that it has enough of a particular hormone and that it doesn’t need to produce more, so production decreases. The phthalates, used to make plastics soft and flexible, are of prime importance. They are present everywhere and we are probably mainly exposed through food as we use soft plastics in food production, processing and packaging. They lower testosterone and therefore mainly affect the male side with the decrease in sperm count. However, it is also harmful for women, because it decreases libido and increases the risk of precocious puberty, premature ovarian failure, miscarriage and premature birth.

The bisphenol A (BPA), used to harden plastic and found in cash register receipts and the lining of some canned food containers, is another. He mimics estrogen and therefore is a particularly bad actor since feminine side, increasing the risk of infertility, but can similarly affect men for sperm quality, reduced libido and higher rates of erectile dysfunction.

In the new born instead, the fault derives from the shrinking, compared to past generations, of the genital organs.

The problem is that exposure to this type of substance already occurs in the fetus and then continues through childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The simplest way is direct exposure. A female fetus, in utero, is raising eggs which she will use to have her own children. These chemicals can reach those germ cells as well.

Quoting Swan’s book, the New York Post reported that the global fertility rate dropped by 50% between 1960 and 2016, with the birth rate in the United States 16% below that needed to support the population. Scientists report that sperm counts have decreased, male babies are developing more genital abnormalities, and men’s conception problems are on the rise. Erectile dysfunction is on the rise and testosterone levels drop by 1% every year. In fact, according to Swan, the sperm count of average Western countries decreased by 59% between 1973 and 2011.

A rate of less than 15 million is considered “low” by the World Health Organization (WHO), but Swan argues that anything less than 40 million is an obstacle to reproduction. The average male comes close to that number with 47.1 million sperm per milliliter compared to his father who had an average of 99 million sperm per milliliter at the same age.

In his latest book, Swan writes: “The problem is not that something is inherently wrong with the human body as it has evolved over time; is that chemicals in our environment and unhealthy lifestyle practices in our modern world are disrupting our hormone balance, causing varying degrees of reproductive chaos that can wipe out fertility and cause long-term health problems even after the end of reproductive age.

Advice for men

Swan offers practical tips to help men turn the trend:

• Store food in glass containers and never place food stored in plastic in the microwave.
• Quit smoking and reduce alcohol consumption. Cigarette smoking is associated with lower sperm count and increased sperm defects, while more than seven drinks per week are harmful to sperm.
• Buy organic to avoid pesticides and herbicides that interfere with male hormones, especially strawberries, spinach, kale, apples and grapes.
• Cut down on high-fat dairy products, which are linked to major sperm abnormalities, and avoid processed meats, which can damage sperm DNA.
• Avoid saunas, watch too much TV, and eliminate stress, says Swan.
• Purchase products labeled ‘paraben-free’ and ‘phthalate-free’ and avoid ‘antibacterial’ skin care products, vinyl shower curtains, air fresheners, toxic household cleaners, and dust frequently to remove chemical buildup