Spoiler Alert About "Children Of Men."
For those of you who haven't seen the movie or read the book, stop now and go do that. Then return and read on. SPOILERS AHEAD
Children Of Men takes place in a world where human beings can no longer procreate because of a failure of female fertility. The result is that humanity is slowly dying off and society is falling further and further into despair and nihilism.
If they made a prequel to "Children Of Men," the news yesterday out of the journal "Human Reproduction Update" would fit right in.
Researchers took a wide range of sperm count results from the loosely termed "western world" and compared them all, plotting patterns over the course of the years from 1973 to 2011.
The results are fairly shocking: the sperm count of western men has decreased as much as 1.4% per year every single year, with a total reduction in sperm count of anywhere from 50 to 60%.
These numbers are insane and, according to the study, an over 50% reduction has occurred even in men who were not selected for scanning due to fertility issues.
Even more bizarre, they don't know what's causing it. The conclusion of the research simply concludes:
These findings strongly suggest a significant decline in male reproductive health, which has serious implications beyond fertility concerns. Research on causes and implications of this decline is urgently needed.
There's no sign of the decline slowing down, and with no clear explanation it is entirely possible the trend could continue into the future. Unfortunately for us life, in this case, may begin to imitate fiction.
Information Source
https://academic.oup.com/humupd/article/doi/10.1093/humupd/dmx022/4035689/Temporal-trends-in-sperm-count-a-systematic-review#93886213
Picture:
meep