Hold Off on the Younger Model

Yesterday, I linked to the results of a British study that found women in their late-30 undergoing IVF treatments have a better chance of conceiving if their husbands are under 40. I suggested that it might be time for women to start looking for younger partners.

I was joking. And, according to an article in Slate, I might also be completely wrong. The rate of teen pregnancy in the US is falling dramatically. It could be the right-wing abstinence campaigns, it could be the left-wing dissemination of reliable information about birth control.

Or, it could be that teenage boys are just less fertile.

• The great sperm-count debate began in 1992, when a group of Danish scientist published a study suggesting that sperm counts declined globally by about 1 percent a year between 1938 and 1990. This study postulated that “environmental influences,” particularly widely used chemical compounds with an impact like that of the female hormone estrogen, might be contributing to a drop in fertility among males. If true, this was obviously an alarming development, particularly given that human sperm counts are already strikingly low compared to almost any other species.

The article goes on to quote a newer study that found sperm counts are dropping by 1.5% per year in the US, 3% per year in Europe and Australia and not at all in less developed nations where, presumably, exposure to chemical products like pesticides that contain estrogen-mimicking ingredients is not as big a problem.

I think most readers of this blog have just given birth. I make posts like these because these articles surprise me. It seems more and more remarkable that anyone gets pregnant at all. If you’re one of those women readers who is here looking to see how mother’s live, it seems this info has some news for you: when looking for a younger partner to have children with, make sure he’s been raised on organic, chemical-free produce.