Male Fertility Crisis – Shock Horror – Why?

My take on commerical GM

At long last the media has got hold of the male fertility story, but why is it such a shock?

The answer is simple, frankly absurd and shames. Male sperm count has been on the slide for a long time. Much shock ensues because:

Men across the world arrive at adulthood with absolutely no clue whether their fertility is compromised.

The sperm “factory” a pair of vulnerable testicles are controlled by the Pituitary gland that peanut sized hormone cpu at the back of the head. Both are assumed to be in perfect functioning order.

There are obvious signals for malfunction of this system, but in the absence of monitoring the parent is oblivious until their child says, “Mum, why is every other boy my age bigger, hairy and got a deep voice”.

Mother may well take the kid to the doctor to be met with, “don’t worry about it, some boys are like that.”  No investigation ensues and the boy is left behind, hampered by his lack of pubescence, body form and maturity, therefore vulnerable to bullies as his immature stature and mind sets him apart.

I frequently deal with such cases and help them get treated because the story I cite above is mine. I lost both cancerous testicles simultaneously at the age of 35. The coincidence is too great for it to be anything other than genetic mutation in my opinion, not that I’ll ever find out. The effect in 1988 was personally devastating and a fitting culmination to years of misery at the hands of my failing fertility system.

Now it is surmised that chemicals may be at the root of this problem. Considering there are more than 900 chemicals that are either confirmed or suspected of disrupting the hormone mechanism, I’d say that was a fair guess, but not the whole story.

Eliminating disruptive chemicals will not solve this problem because DNA disruption is involved. Therefore the answer must lie in resolving genetic mutations as well.

First however, such mutations must be identified, a tall task indeed with huge amounts of data involved. Identifying candidates is also a priority, but how can they be found? Infertile men seems to be the obvious answer and so it is, but that is like trying to stop a leak by emptying the bath with a teaspoon without turning the tap off.

No the answer must lie with our newborn boys surely? The scope of this issue can only be properly assessed that way.

Vulnerable newborn buys can be identified by a characteristic undescended testicle, but there are far fewer of those than men with fertility problems.

However, there is an opportunity to find out Pituitary gland malfunction of the fertility system within the first year of life in boys.

A scientist named Grumbach published an article in 2005 demonstrating how both boys and girls could be tested. He called it “A window of Opportunity for the diagnosis of Hypogonadotrophic Hypogonadism in the infant.”

So not only could Pituitary gland oriented fertility issue be discovered in boys, but girls too, who have a slightly wider “window”.

I am so fortunate to have become a natural father, doubly so to be a Grandfather, but my fear is the consequence of my issues on my granddaughter, who has just turned two.

Has my history resulted in heartbreak for her finding out she can’t have a child? I don’t know and nor do any other grandfathers like me, of which there are seemingly many.

Lets not kid ourselves. This issue has bee developing since man first decided to use heavy metals and smelt them. It’s been exacerbated by the development of petroleum, chemicals and pollution with ocean fish inexplicably changing sex.

It is time.

Surely each boy and girl in the developed world can have their “fertility factory” checked early in life as Grumbach suggests. At the very least a large multi centre piece of research appears essential.

True it is not all issues would necessarily be identified but there would be a lot more answers than there are today.

Perhaps then the over-dramatic headlines of potential extinction could be laid to rest alongside the myth that male hormones decline naturally.

Check out The Testosterone Deficiency Centre for more info on the overall male hormone issue of which male infertility is the consequence.