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EWG: 6 Surprising Things That Can Wreak Havoc On Male Fertility & Sex Drive
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-13020/6-surprising-things-that-can-wreak-havoc-on-male-fertility-sex-drive.html
6 Surprising Things That Can Wreak Havoc On Male Fertility & Sex Drive
BY ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP
MARCH 20, 2014 5:38 AM EDT
A 2013 poll conducted for The Associated Press found that 8 of every 10 men said they'd always wanted to be fathers or would like to be one someday. There’s a popular misconception that infertility is a woman’s problem, but according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, in about 40% of infertile couples, the male partner is either the sole or a contributing cause.
The causes of male infertility are complex and varied, but avoiding risks that can impair proper development of a man’s hormone and reproductive systems is first and foremost. In order to impregnate a woman, a man has to be able to produce and ejaculate enough healthy sperm to fertilize her egg, and studies show that several types of toxic chemicals that everyone encounters in daily life can alter sperm and semen in ways that may impair fertility.
Here are some of the ways that you can be exposed to potentially fertility-impairing chemicals and what you can do to avoid them:
1. Chemicals in household dust
2. Body-care products
3. Plastic containers
4. Canned food
5. Cell phone radiation.
6. Pesticides.
The Environmental Working Group is the nation’s most effective environmental health research and advocacy organization. Our mission is to conduct original, game-changing research that inspires people, businesses and governments to take action to protect human health and the environment. With your help—and with the help of hundreds of organizations with whom we partner—we are creating a healthier and cleaner environment for the next generation and beyond.
6 Surprising Things That Can Wreak Havoc On Male Fertility & Sex Drive
BY ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP
MARCH 20, 2014 5:38 AM EDT
A 2013 poll conducted for The Associated Press found that 8 of every 10 men said they'd always wanted to be fathers or would like to be one someday. There’s a popular misconception that infertility is a woman’s problem, but according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, in about 40% of infertile couples, the male partner is either the sole or a contributing cause.
The causes of male infertility are complex and varied, but avoiding risks that can impair proper development of a man’s hormone and reproductive systems is first and foremost. In order to impregnate a woman, a man has to be able to produce and ejaculate enough healthy sperm to fertilize her egg, and studies show that several types of toxic chemicals that everyone encounters in daily life can alter sperm and semen in ways that may impair fertility.
Here are some of the ways that you can be exposed to potentially fertility-impairing chemicals and what you can do to avoid them:
1. Chemicals in household dust
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2. Body-care products
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3. Plastic containers
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4. Canned food
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5. Cell phone radiation.
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6. Pesticides.
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The Environmental Working Group is the nation’s most effective environmental health research and advocacy organization. Our mission is to conduct original, game-changing research that inspires people, businesses and governments to take action to protect human health and the environment. With your help—and with the help of hundreds of organizations with whom we partner—we are creating a healthier and cleaner environment for the next generation and beyond.
Mundane but no joke.
1 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/a-threat-to-male-fertility/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
MARCH 21, 2014, 1:31 PM (52 Comments)
A Threat to Male Fertility
By DEBORAH BLUM
[img]
[/img]
A pile of PVC water pipes. PVC contains phthalates, which a new study suggests is linked to male infertility.
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
To study the impact of everyday chemicals on fertility, federal researchers recently spent four years tracking 501 couples as they tried to have children. One of the findings stood out: while both men and women were exposed to known toxic chemicals, men seemed much more likely to suffer fertility problems as a result.
The gender gap was particularly wide when it came to phthalates, those ubiquitous compounds used to make plastics more flexible and cosmetic lotions slide on more smoothly. Women who wore cosmetics often had higher levels of phthalates in their bodies, as measured by urinalysis. But only in their male partners were phthalate levels correlated with infertility.
“It’s the males in the study that are driving the effect,” said Germaine Buck Louis, an epidemiologist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and lead author of the report, published in February in Fertility and Sterility. “They’re the signal.”
Phthalates belong to a group of industrial compounds known as endocrine disruptors because they interfere with the endocrine system, which governs the production and distribution of hormones in the body. The chemicals have been implicated in a range of health problems, including birth defects, cancers and diabetes.
But it is their effect on the human reproductive system that has most worried researchers. A growing body of work over the last two decades suggests that phthalates can rewire the male reproductive system, interfering with the operation of androgenic hormones, such as testosterone, that play key roles in male development. That mechanism, some experts believe, explains findings that link phthalate exposure to changes in everything from testicular development to sperm quality.
<>
MARCH 21, 2014, 1:31 PM (52 Comments)
A Threat to Male Fertility
By DEBORAH BLUM
[img]
[/img]
A pile of PVC water pipes. PVC contains phthalates, which a new study suggests is linked to male infertility.
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
To study the impact of everyday chemicals on fertility, federal researchers recently spent four years tracking 501 couples as they tried to have children. One of the findings stood out: while both men and women were exposed to known toxic chemicals, men seemed much more likely to suffer fertility problems as a result.
The gender gap was particularly wide when it came to phthalates, those ubiquitous compounds used to make plastics more flexible and cosmetic lotions slide on more smoothly. Women who wore cosmetics often had higher levels of phthalates in their bodies, as measured by urinalysis. But only in their male partners were phthalate levels correlated with infertility.
“It’s the males in the study that are driving the effect,” said Germaine Buck Louis, an epidemiologist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and lead author of the report, published in February in Fertility and Sterility. “They’re the signal.”
Phthalates belong to a group of industrial compounds known as endocrine disruptors because they interfere with the endocrine system, which governs the production and distribution of hormones in the body. The chemicals have been implicated in a range of health problems, including birth defects, cancers and diabetes.
But it is their effect on the human reproductive system that has most worried researchers. A growing body of work over the last two decades suggests that phthalates can rewire the male reproductive system, interfering with the operation of androgenic hormones, such as testosterone, that play key roles in male development. That mechanism, some experts believe, explains findings that link phthalate exposure to changes in everything from testicular development to sperm quality.
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