Microplastics and Low T/Sperm Counts

[Foreigner]

Microplastics found in every human testicle in study

Scientists say discovery may be linked to decades-long decline in sperm counts in men around the world

www.theguardian.com

Microplastics have been found in human testicles, with researchers saying the discovery might be linked to declining sperm counts in men.

The scientists tested 23 human testes, as well as 47 testes from pet dogs. They found microplastic pollution in every sample.


The human testicles had been preserved and so their sperm count could not be measured. However, the sperm count in the dogs’ testes could be assessed and was lower in samples with higher contamination with PVC. The study demonstrates a correlation but further research is needed to prove microplastics cause sperm counts to fall.

Sperm counts in men have been falling for decades, with chemical pollution such as pesticides implicated by many studies. Microplastics have also recently been discovered in human blood, placentas and breast milk, indicating widespread contamination of people’s bodies. The impact on health is as yet unknown but microplastics have been shown to cause damage to human cells in the laboratory.

It's a small sample size, but I've seen other studies like it. PFAS are also a concern. All water reservoirs on planet Earth are contaminated with them now, and it's in the rain falling on our heads.

I've found it a bit mind boggling that humanity is so hung up over CO2 levels and other greenhouse gases, but there is so little attention put on how much chemical pollution we are saturating our entire world with. We literally have plastic in our cells now, with no known way to detox this shit. Nature can't absorb anymore, it seems. All of the products we put on our skin, the drugs we take, and all the other products we use... they move through our bodies and just end up back in the environment.

I just wanted to post this here because it relates to hormones and I have personally met quite a few guys in recent years who are low T. Just wanted to know you're not alone and the reason may be related to our contaminated world.

 

[Foreigner]

But you know why all of this is, don't you? It's because to confront the problem would mean to confront communist China. But few have the courage to do that. Instead you actually find cowards, even on this very website Reeeeeeee over global warming. Cowards!

What does Communist China have to do with confronting it, exactly?

 

[someguyontheinternet]

Capitalist consumption and the need for continuous profit drives massive portions of the pollution, China is just a cog in the machine of producing consumer goods at low cost to keep those profits going

 

[Serotonin101]

Capitalist consumption and the need for continuous profit drives massive portions of the pollution, China is just a cog in the machine of producing consumer goods at low cost to keep those profits going

We got a winner. Combined with "throw away culture" and "planned obsolescence" and you have a sea of waste that's produced in places that don't give a fuck about the environment and consumed by people that demand cheap products without a care for the origin.

 

[Skorpio]

Here's the primary source for people who want to read the study. It's open access. Figure 4 has some interesting correlations between different plastic types and different biomarkers.

Microplastic presence in dog and human testis and its potential association with sperm count and weights of testis and epididymis

Abstract. The ubiquitous existence of microplastics and nanoplastics raises concerns about their potential impact on the human reproductive system. Limited

doi.org

 

[gordonliddy]

places that don't give a fuck about the environment

You misspelled China.

 

[someguyontheinternet]

Does the US give a fuck about the environment if they exclusively offshore productions to areas that do stuff like that just to increase profits?

 

[Serotonin101]

Does the US give a fuck about the environment if they exclusively offshore productions to areas that do stuff like that just to increase profits?

I'd argue, no. Basically shifting blame to others while claiming innocence and patting our backs

 

[someguyontheinternet]

I see people constantly blame China for polluting but who tf is buying those products? Americans

 

[MedicinalUser247]

Well you know what they say... One mans waste is another mans soap. lol.

 

[gordonliddy]

I'd argue, no. Basically shifting blame to others while claiming innocence and patting our backs

Don't worry about it, Bro. He's only pretending to have cogent politic views. People less polite than ourselves would label him a troll.

 

[Foreigner]

Capitalist consumption and the need for continuous profit drives massive portions of the pollution, China is just a cog in the machine of producing consumer goods at low cost to keep those profits going

Asia produces more plastic for their people than we do here. WAY more. Have you been to Asia? Here in Canada they are banning plastic drinking straws while in China they are wrapping single bananas in plastic bubble wrap for purchase. It's clown world.

China's planned obsolescence is worse than ours. When I lived there, I went through five DVD players in two years. Cheap to buy, but falls apart fast. fake products were everywhere. I opened a tube of toothpaste one day and the equivalent of caked sand came out. It was supposed to be Colgate. No refund. False advertising was everywhere... they could literally lie to your face and there was no liability. This was in 2009.

China does capitalism better (and worse) than we do. That's why their country is a polluted hell hole. The Pacific Ocean plastic gyre, which is basically a giant island of plastic garbage that can be seen from orbit, mostly comes from Asia.

 

[Foreigner]

I see people constantly blame China for polluting but who tf is buying those products? Americans

I'm not saying we all aren't contributing, just that this idea that China is so innocent is incorrect. The US and China are the biggest polluters in the whole world. (India is a close 3rd.) Their business relationship allows them both to behave abhorrently to the environment. Neither is better than the other.

 

[someguyontheinternet]

Nobody said anybody was innocent, I said that the capitalist system and consumerism is to blame rather than any specific country

 

[Vastness]

I mean that is all pretty bad yeah. And for sure, no doubt environmental pollutants are having all manner of negative effects on the health of all human beings. I gotta point out though that low sperm count is not an interchangeable term with low testosterone, and personally I am not convinced by the existing research that looks specifically at testosterone levels, and have come to believe that the idea that declining testosterone levels in men is specifically something that anyone should be thinking about is mostly just Manosphere-originating, Trad-values-simping bullshit.

You cannot realistically assess that someone is "low T" just by meeting them and observing their behaviour. A lot of the time this declining T hysteria bullshit is specifically aimed at "Western" men and either subtly or overtly attempting to link this mythical issue to a supposed decline in Western culture and modern ideas about gender compared to other more "traditional" cultures with more rigid ideas about gender roles and "masculinity", but obviously the idea that it is environmental pollutants that are the cause of this would contradict that idea since, as has been discussed in this very thread, it is those more staunchly traditionalist cultures which would have even greater exposure to these pollutants and thus would have even more severe problems with "low T men", if this was really an independently important issue, which, again, I just struggle to believe that it is.

I also have a hard time buying the idea that testosterone levels are significantly or importantly less in our modern, comfortable society when compared to a significantly more stressful recent past in human history just based on common sense principles. Stress lowers testosterone and men in the Middle Ages or even the 19th century on average were surely significantly more stressed than the average "Western" man today. Obviously they also died a lot younger though, so yeah perhaps before controlling for age the average amount of testosterone per male lifetime could have been higher 100 or even just 40 years ago, sure.

As far as the sperm count and microplastics thing, yeah sure, of course, probably a factor. And yeah, microplastics might also be lowering male testosterone levels globally. On the whole though I think the idea that T levels even have declined to an extent that actually matters to anything is just nonsense Culture Wars manosphere tradsimping bullshit, for the aforementioned reasons.