Male fertility declining – studies show environmental toxins could be a reason
Low sperm counts are a big problem for sub-fertile couples, because it really does take &#x27;millions&#x27; to get one to fertilize an egg.<p>It&#x27;s been about 5.5 years since I started sabotaging my fertility, using &#x27;the old heat methods&#x27; [1]. The P.A. who ordered my first sperm test was skeptical about my ambitions, &quot;it only takes one...&quot; But it really does take millions of sperm per ejaculation, so that ~hundreds can get to the egg and work away at the <i>Zona pellucida</i> [0], which is the shell (&quot;glycoprotein layer&quot;) that surrounds the egg. (I don&#x27;t know exactly how many are required, but it&#x27;s certainly &gt;1. [2])<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Zona_pellucida" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Zona_pellucida</a> &#x2F; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Acrosome_reaction" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Acrosome_reaction</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12869969" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12869969</a> &#x2F; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?dateEnd=1501200000&amp;dateRange=custom&amp;dateStart=1451606400&amp;page=0&amp;prefix=true&amp;query=sperm tcj_phx&amp;sort=byPopularity&amp;type=comment" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?dateEnd=1501200000&amp;dateRange=custom&amp;...</a><p>[2] &quot;Only about 1 in 1 million sperm that are ejaculated into the vagina will reach the site of fertilization.&quot; - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.khanacademy.org&#x2F;test-prep&#x2F;mcat&#x2F;cells&#x2F;embryology&#x2F;a&#x2F;egg-meets-sperm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.khanacademy.org&#x2F;test-prep&#x2F;mcat&#x2F;cells&#x2F;embryology&#x2F;...</a><p>I have a microscope (need to get a camera attachment), and I&#x27;ve gotten a few lab tests: my swimmers go away, they come back. How aggressive I was with the heat treatments determined how long they&#x27;d stay away. I don&#x27;t have consistent laboratory numbers, just the sense that it takes 3 weeks of consistent water treatments at 112+° before they&#x27;re mostly gone. I&#x27;ve done some searches about spermatogenesis cycle, but haven&#x27;t come up with the reason why it&#x27;s 3 weeks of treatment before the heat shock proteins eliminate the tails from the sperm. I&#x27;ve gotten lazy and done sporadic treatments at 112+° for a week and a half (iirc)... nothing for a week. By 3 weeks the sperm are gone. If I&#x27;m lazy, and don&#x27;t do the full 3-week protocol (at least 5 days&#x2F;week for 3 weeks), they&#x27;ll come back sooner. [&lt;- edited to clarify. 16-18 days over 3 weeks should be enough to have 2 months of 0 sperm. 5 days of treatment for 1 week might get you to 0 motile sperm 3 weeks after the first treatment, then you&#x27;d be at 0 motile sperm for a month or so. It&#x27;s been 5 years of inconsistent effort and ad hoc experimentation...]<p>The whole spermatogenesis cycle takes between 74 and 120 days: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Spermatogenesis#Duration" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Spermatogenesis#Duration</a><p>My girlfriend was not likely to pop an egg out (on account of details covered previously) and we weren&#x27;t able to get together as often as I&#x27;d&#x27;ve liked. So don&#x27;t rely on my anecdotes: n=1, etc.<p>I emailed with a HN user from France, who&#x27;d linked to a French website about male fertility [3].
This year I noticed that site had a link a new site which sells a silicone ring for helping men sabotage their fertility: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thoreme.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thoreme.com&#x2F;</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20201203165532&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.contraceptionmasculine.fr&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20201203165532&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.contra...</a><p>The French dudes are simply elevating their testicles to keep them at body temperature, thereby dramatically lowering their sperm counts. Based on my own experiments, I think a man would have to wear this silicone ring 24&#x2F;7 to keep their count low enough to prevent conception. If you took it off at night, I&#x27;d wager your sperm count might only go down by 1&#x2F;2 to 2&#x2F;3. Which might be enough.<p>With that said, my tax refund just arrived. I think I&#x27;ll buy one...<p>If I had a problem with low sperm count, I&#x27;d avoid phyto-estrogens and xeno-estrogens are the first things to avoid at all costs: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;12477510&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;12477510&#x2F;</a><p>Lots of options for improving male fertility come to mind, but avoiding plasticizers and PCB&#x27;s is probably a good first step.<p>[edit1 - clarity]
[edit2 - added link to kahn academy)