After having written the piece on a decreasing fertility rate (1) I started wondering what could be the causes for this. Of course there can be many reasons for this, like certain developments in a society that makes you want to think twice about getting a baby. This article focuses on a biological factor, namely the quality of sperm.

A review article from 2022 from Levine et al. (3) showed a huge decline in the number of sperm cells. It would really get troublesome when men would reach below the 40 million cells per ml. In another article (2), we can find a number of reasons for this development.

“The study did not investigate potential causes of sperm declines. Previous research has tied pesticide exposure to sperm quality, according to Environmental Health News. Other environmental factors, like exposure to pollutants from fossil fuels, may be linked to lower fertility rates, per the Guardian. Levine tells USA Today that a lack of physical activity, a poor diet and smoking can all contribute to lower sperm counts.” (2)

Sometimes writing Gondolath articles is like describing the collapse of a society. Let’s just hope that wel will be able to discover the factors that can reverse all these ugly trends.

FOOTNOTES
(1) On Worldwide Low Total Fertility Rates
(2) Human Sperm Counts Declining Worldwide, Study Finds
(3) Temporal trends in sperm count: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis of samples collected globally in the 20th and 21st centuries