our first story has serious global
implications the very survival of the
human species but it’s about something
that really couldn’t get more personal
fertility researchers have recently
found staggering drops in male sperm
count in Western countries the big
question is why correspondent Tim
Samuels agreed to put himself on the
frontlines in New York to figure out
what’s up down there
[Music]
I’m Tim Samuels in New York
investigating a crisis close to home a
global sperma get’em an alarming new
study has found that between 1973 and
2011 sperm counts in western males man
in North America Europe Australia and
New Zealand dropped from an average of
99 million sperm per cubic centimeter to
just 47 million theoretically if the
trend persists by 2050 our sperm may
disappear entirely I’m here to add my
sample to the scientific pool and I’m
deeply hopeful that mine are still
swimming hi I’m Tim hi Tim this is about
to get awkward okay here’s your specimen
jar you can come right on in a year
you’re provided with the materials that
you need and then once you’re finished
you give me a call this is a special
word Thunderbirds I’ll go you’re done
okay okay
[Music]
with Miriam analyzing my sample upstairs
I’m turned loose on the streets to fret
over my counts and the modern-day
phenomena like stress and obesity
believed to lower it don’t get me wrong
I take my fertility very seriously
to prep for this count I’ve been eating
right exercise it managing stress
recently I even started laying off the
booze but troubling research suggests
little of this may matter of the many
factors contributing to sperm count
decline there’s one that’s especially
hard to avoid plastics more specifically
a group of chemicals found in many
plastic products called phthalates
phthalates are added to plastic during
manufacture to make it soft and flexible
they’re just wonderfully versatile
amazing products it’s just that they
also have the effect of altering our
body’s hormones epidemiologist shown at
Swan who co-authored the breakthrough
fertility study also researches the
lates effect on the hormone testosterone
Shauna’s met me at this 99-cent store to
show me how ubiquitous these chemicals
are from me handling you know a plastic
bottle how does it get from there so my
testes the chemicals that we were
concerned about are not chemically bound
to the plastic they’re in the
microwaving leftovers in a plastic
container is a prime example when heated
the phthalates leach out of the plastic
into the food
we’re ingesting them we’re absorbing
them and we’re breathing them for
reasons not entirely known once inside
the body phthalates seem to inhibit
testosterone production that’s scary
enough when you’re a grown man
but Shawna’s research suggests worse
damage could be done before
but even boom your mother when she was
pregnant with you what she drank what
she ate what she was exposed to was
actively affecting in your body within
her body for his sex organs to develop
the male fetus needs testosterone in
utero when it’s not there at the right
time in the right amount then he can be
what we call in completely masculinized
translation his testicles may not
develop and his penis may be smaller and
he will have a low sperm count that’s
extraordinary it is extraordinary the
fertility study which shown a
co-authored focused on Western men
because similar data is less available
in other countries but that doesn’t mean
the phenomenon isn’t worldwide if that
trend continues as is does it start
suppose existential threats to our
species I’m not a seer I can’t predict
the future but I can tell you what
our poor dwindling sperm they’re working
overtime to propagate the human race but
how much longer can they keep up what
what a post sperm world look like looks
like I picked the wrong week to stop
drinking bioethicists Arthur Caplan sees
a future in which we ditch concerns
about raising sperm counts and focus on
raising actual sperm with stem cells it
sounds nuts but you you take this cell
you put it in a dish you put the right
chemicals around it and lo and behold
you can trick it into making sperm cells
so is the future of reproduction in 2030
years you know darling let’s make a baby
rather than having sex it’s hold on I’m
just gonna take some stem cells
reverse-engineer
a nun try and select the sperm from that
I think sex always will have a future
but it may get disconnected from
reproduction engineering a better baby
as the future sperm by design I’m ready
engineered to have my most desirable
traits intelligence stunning good looks
athleticism ready to pair with the
perfect egg
[Music]
this technology will be great when it’s
ready in 10 or 15 years but that might
be too late for me so I’m headed back
it’s a while Cornell to learn how my
it’s a bit like being an expectant
expectant father Tim hey Peter sagal
okay we’re gonna go right in here
Weill Cornell urologist Peter Schlegel
specializes in male fertility okay so
we’ve got some results Miriam is looking
at the sample right now okay so that’s
it’s my or not your sample on there time
for the moment of truth
this is it this is it’s mind-blowing to
see your individual sperm and are they
are they swimming just erratically in
circles or Azrael there’s no pattern to
this well they never asked for
directions which is part of the problem
yeah but now for the Potence question
how’s my count the concentration of
sperm in the sample is 87 million the
average man will have 60 to 80 million
sperms you’re even a little better than
than average okay
but is the assumption that had I lived
40 years ago if we’d be doing this it
would have been better good question
probably in the previous generation
numbers were higher okay so thankfully
my chaps can swim better than I can and
theoretically seem up to the
reproductive task now just the small
matter of finding an egg they can call home
implications the very survival of the
human species but it’s about something
that really couldn’t get more personal
fertility researchers have recently
found staggering drops in male sperm
count in Western countries the big
question is why correspondent Tim
Samuels agreed to put himself on the
frontlines in New York to figure out
what’s up down there
[Music]
I’m Tim Samuels in New York
investigating a crisis close to home a
global sperma get’em an alarming new
study has found that between 1973 and
2011 sperm counts in western males man
in North America Europe Australia and
New Zealand dropped from an average of
99 million sperm per cubic centimeter to
just 47 million theoretically if the
trend persists by 2050 our sperm may
disappear entirely I’m here to add my
sample to the scientific pool and I’m
deeply hopeful that mine are still
swimming hi I’m Tim hi Tim this is about
to get awkward okay here’s your specimen
jar you can come right on in a year
you’re provided with the materials that
you need and then once you’re finished
you give me a call this is a special
word Thunderbirds I’ll go you’re done
okay okay
[Music]
with Miriam analyzing my sample upstairs
I’m turned loose on the streets to fret
over my counts and the modern-day
phenomena like stress and obesity
believed to lower it don’t get me wrong
I take my fertility very seriously
to prep for this count I’ve been eating
right exercise it managing stress
recently I even started laying off the
booze but troubling research suggests
little of this may matter of the many
factors contributing to sperm count
decline there’s one that’s especially
hard to avoid plastics more specifically
a group of chemicals found in many
plastic products called phthalates
phthalates are added to plastic during
manufacture to make it soft and flexible
they’re just wonderfully versatile
amazing products it’s just that they
also have the effect of altering our
body’s hormones epidemiologist shown at
Swan who co-authored the breakthrough
fertility study also researches the
lates effect on the hormone testosterone
Shauna’s met me at this 99-cent store to
show me how ubiquitous these chemicals
are from me handling you know a plastic
bottle how does it get from there so my
testes the chemicals that we were
concerned about are not chemically bound
to the plastic they’re in the
microwaving leftovers in a plastic
container is a prime example when heated
the phthalates leach out of the plastic
into the food
we’re ingesting them we’re absorbing
them and we’re breathing them for
reasons not entirely known once inside
the body phthalates seem to inhibit
testosterone production that’s scary
enough when you’re a grown man
but Shawna’s research suggests worse
damage could be done before
but even boom your mother when she was
pregnant with you what she drank what
she ate what she was exposed to was
actively affecting in your body within
her body for his sex organs to develop
the male fetus needs testosterone in
utero when it’s not there at the right
time in the right amount then he can be
what we call in completely masculinized
translation his testicles may not
develop and his penis may be smaller and
he will have a low sperm count that’s
extraordinary it is extraordinary the
fertility study which shown a
co-authored focused on Western men
because similar data is less available
in other countries but that doesn’t mean
the phenomenon isn’t worldwide if that
trend continues as is does it start
suppose existential threats to our
species I’m not a seer I can’t predict
the future but I can tell you what
our poor dwindling sperm they’re working
overtime to propagate the human race but
how much longer can they keep up what
what a post sperm world look like looks
like I picked the wrong week to stop
drinking bioethicists Arthur Caplan sees
a future in which we ditch concerns
about raising sperm counts and focus on
raising actual sperm with stem cells it
sounds nuts but you you take this cell
you put it in a dish you put the right
chemicals around it and lo and behold
you can trick it into making sperm cells
so is the future of reproduction in 2030
years you know darling let’s make a baby
rather than having sex it’s hold on I’m
just gonna take some stem cells
reverse-engineer
a nun try and select the sperm from that
I think sex always will have a future
but it may get disconnected from
reproduction engineering a better baby
as the future sperm by design I’m ready
engineered to have my most desirable
traits intelligence stunning good looks
athleticism ready to pair with the
perfect egg
[Music]
this technology will be great when it’s
ready in 10 or 15 years but that might
be too late for me so I’m headed back
it’s a while Cornell to learn how my
it’s a bit like being an expectant
expectant father Tim hey Peter sagal
okay we’re gonna go right in here
Weill Cornell urologist Peter Schlegel
specializes in male fertility okay so
we’ve got some results Miriam is looking
at the sample right now okay so that’s
it’s my or not your sample on there time
for the moment of truth
this is it this is it’s mind-blowing to
see your individual sperm and are they
are they swimming just erratically in
circles or Azrael there’s no pattern to
this well they never asked for
directions which is part of the problem
yeah but now for the Potence question
how’s my count the concentration of
sperm in the sample is 87 million the
average man will have 60 to 80 million
sperms you’re even a little better than
than average okay
but is the assumption that had I lived
40 years ago if we’d be doing this it
would have been better good question
probably in the previous generation
numbers were higher okay so thankfully
my chaps can swim better than I can and
theoretically seem up to the
reproductive task now just the small
matter of finding an egg they can call home
Please follow and like us: