Environmental factors in declining human fertility

Scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) participated in a study of environmental factors and declining human fertility led by researchers from the Department of Growth and Reproduction at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. The article was published in the journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology.

The authors discuss data suggesting that human reproductive health is deteriorating in industrialized regions. Widespread infertility and the need for assisted reproduction due to poor semen quality and/or oocyte failure are now major health issues. Other indicators of declining reproductive health include a worldwide increase in the incidence of testicular cancer among young men and alterations in twinning frequency. There is also evidence of a parallel decline in rates of legal abortions, revealing a deterioration in total conception rates.

Subtle alterations in fertility rates were already visible in about 1900, and most industrialized regions now have rates that are below the levels required to sustain their populations. The authors hypothesize that these reproductive health problems are partially linked to increasing human exposures to chemicals that originate directly or indirectly from fossil fuels.

Skakkebæk NE, Lindahl-Jacobsen R, Levine H, Andersson A, Jørgensen N, Main KM, et al.
Environmental factors in declining human fertility
Nat Rev Endocrinol; Published online 15 December 2021;
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-021-00598-8

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