The rise of Big Sperm: the world of technology has the solution to our sperm crisis? | Life and style

Thepubs, dudes, dudes, hate to interrupt you, but how do you ejaculate? Would you fight to fill half a teaspoon? And your concentration, do you like: are we talking about more than 20m swimmers per milliliter? And how is this motility? Do your spermatozoa wave their flagella as if they could not wait to reach that egg – or did they float like dead tadpoles in a poorly executed clbadroom experiment? It's not so embarrbading, surely?

If you hope to fertilize a human egg one day without thinking about it, well, Big Sperm thinks it's time to do it. A wave of technology startups, such as ExSeed, Yo, Trak and Legacy, offer next-generation home sperm testing technology and, in some cases, sperm freezing services. And even if the British are not yet ready to compare their concerns about fertility, these concerns are clearly in the minds of many people.

"I do not think we understood how many men were just 'curious' about their reproductive health," says Greg Sommer, head scientist at Trak, who offers home test kits freezing and even sperm training. "The product is primarily aimed at couples trying to get pregnant, but about one-third of our clients use Trak without actively seeking to conceive." In some cases, these men will have a specific problem: a past injury, for example, or a history of steroid use. But others are motivated only by curiosity. Sommer finds this encouraging. "In the past, men have mostly ignored fertility as a female problem. Today, men and women recognize the role that men play. "

Morten Ulsted, CEO of the Danish company ExSeed, launched in the UK in January, said the men's health sector was booming. He cited as a source of inspiration the emergence of women-focused technologies, such as the Clue application (period monitoring) or the Elvie smart bad pump. "We've all seen what has happened to 'femtech' in recent years. This sector is expected to reach $ 40 billion by 2020, and it did not exist five years ago. Now the same thing is happening with men-specific problems – we just need a catchy name. "

About one in seven British couples have difficulty conceiving, according to the NHS, and in about 40% of cases, the problem lies in the man. But, in general, fertility tends to be considered a female problem. Ulsted cites an inquiry that 42% of Britons were concerned about their fertility, but only 18% of men had considered a test. "Of those, 33% said they wanted the woman to take the test first," he says. "But if it's something that worries you, why not do it? And where there is stigma, technology can really help. It's so much more comfortable to do a sperm test in the privacy of your home than to visit a fertility clinic.

While a woman is born with all the eggs that she will ever have, a man produces fresh semen every 72 days or so. ExSeed works with a mail order test that you can use through your phone. He compares the results to an extensive database of sperm samples to give you an badysis of volume, motility and concentration. He can then propose a personalized training program to improve them. "People are often told that their sperm is suboptimal and that they should be healthier," says Ulsted. "All right, but it's hard to do. Here's what we say, here are the two or three most important tips that may affect you. Most of the time, it is a fruit at hand, like drinking less and doing a little more sport, plus some supplements. "

It is possible to improve the number of spermatozoa in the short term. Ulsted argues that some professionally supervised men were able to improve sperm concentration by 25% and motility by 40% over a 25-week period.

The long-term decline in fertility rates among Western men is one of the factors that motivated investment in this sector. A study from the journal Human Reproduction Update of 2017 found that the sperm count among men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand had decreased by 59.3 % since 1973. While it continues to decline at this rate, humans will soon no longer be able to reproduce naturally. And, as the authors say, nobody really knows what causes it.

Is it exposure to phthalates in plastics? There is a link between maternal exposure to these common chemicals and decreased size of the bads in boys. Does it mean chemicals that change hormones in sunscreens? Estrogen in the water supply? Industrial pesticides? (Environmentalists have expressed strong concerns about the decline of sperm in birds and bees.) "It will not take a genetics, which means it's a way of life: diet, style of life, stressors, "says Ulsted, who has begun to be interested in sperm. when he read the study.

The good news is that men can do something relatively easily with their lifestyle and expect improvement in a few months. But you can not easily remove people from Western society to isolate the reasons for the long-term decline. This has become a source of great anxiety over human rights forums, where it is sometimes seen as evidence of a feminist plot to emasculate and eventually eliminate the Western male.

Risk factors for fathers who hope to conceive later are much better understood. "We're always talking about the age and fertility of women, as if that's the only thing that matters," says Geeta Nargund, medical director of Create Clinics for Fertility. "The main difference is that the fertility of women stops, but that of men decreases over time. And the risk factors are increasing. Conclude when the male partner is over 45 takes five times longer. the risk of miscarriage is twice as high, even when the partner is much younger. Then there is an increased risk that children are born with neurological disorders, such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. "

American entrepreneurs are increasingly advocating sperm freezing as a solution to these problems. It is already quite common in men who are about to undergo cancer treatment, vasectomy or a badual conversion operation. But it's only recently that men have been encouraged to do so as an "insurance policy," as Sommer says.

"I think the idea that men freeze their sperm" just because "is pretty new, but we welcome it, he said. "It reflects the growing awareness of men and their commitment to their health. It also shows that men embrace and give priority to fatherhood in their life goals. "He points out that it's easier for men to freeze their sperm than for women to freeze their eggs:" So why not? "Just a little bit of planning." Just as you should try to optimize your sperm count when you try to conceive, you should also optimize it before freezing it.This sample you collect to freeze is important – it is best to give the best of himself. "(The temptation to play the word game in his sector must be overwhelming, I notice, I think it becomes difficult.)

People who work in the UK fertility industry are more skeptical. Nargund considers the freezing of eggs and sperm a "radical solution" to problems that would be better solved by increased fertility awareness. In some high-risk cases, this can be interesting. Some forms of medication affect the number of spermatozoa, including SSRI antidepressants, some antiepileptics and antidiabetics. People who work with pesticides, plastics and heavy metals, as well as taxi drivers and truck drivers over long distances – because of their long periods of occupation in confined spaces – are in danger. And reproductive health is inextricably linked to general health: alcohol, recreational drugs, poor nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle are all potential problems. But, since new sperm are produced every three months or so, men who make the appropriate changes to their lifestyle often see significant improvements.

"What I do not want is for men and women to freeze their sperm, then stop worrying about it," says Nargund. "As soon as you freeze sperm, you rely on other reproductive techniques, such as IVF. So you outsource your reproduction in a clinic, and it will be expensive. It may not work the first time. And I am also opposed to women being exposed to unnecessary treatment. "

In addition, the potential complications of late fatherhood do not end with conception. "Let's say you freeze your sperm at age 30 to have a child at age 50. We must also think about the well-being of the child. A 50 year old man will be 65 years old when the child turns 15 years old. It could be a younger sperm, but there are other issues to consider. We should encourage men and women to start their families when they are younger when possible. She admits that this is not what men will want to hear, even if this is the kind of message women have been receiving for years.

Allan Pacey, professor of Andrology at the University of Sheffield, who advised Legacy on his sperm testing technology, wonders why we are so reluctant to consider these dangers. "There is much evidence of the impact of men's age on children. The data has been around for 20 or 30 years. But we tend to ignore it because it goes against what society wants. Nature tells us to have kids in the late teens and early twenties – she does not really want us to have kids in her mid-thirties. He also does not see sperm freezing as a solution. , especially in the United Kingdom. "It's not like warming up a frozen Tesco pie. You can freeze perfectly good sperm and remove it, and it can be used up. Although some couples may find success using their thawed sperm "in the manner of a pervert," most will not and will eventually depend on IVF.

He is skeptical of the claims of a sperm crisis in the West. "Yes, the charts show a striking decline, but examining sperm quality measures over time is fraught with difficulties. The techniques have changed and our understanding of the margins of error has changed. I rather agree with Carl Sagan's point of view that if you want to make an extraordinary claim, you need extraordinary evidence. "

The decline is, as he points out, "normal to normal": concentration levels have increased from 99 m sperm per milliliter to 47 m, and any exceedance greater than 20 m is acceptable. It is true that we have fewer children in Europe, and this is not the case in Africa, for example. But it is difficult to separate this from socio-economic factors. "Wealth tends to be a good contraceptive," says Pacey – as GDP rises, people tend to have fewer children.

"Nevertheless, I wonder why male fertility is not at the forefront of the political and health agenda," he says. "Why do we still see this through a feminine prism? Half of the time when couples can not conceive is because of male fertility issues. That's why I welcome innovation. Regardless of health care providers and scientists like me, that does not work. So I wonder if these tech startups will be able to disrupt things satisfactorily. "