Fertility, put the odds on your side

In the summer of 2018, the national public health agency, Santé Publique France, revealed alarming information: in fifteen years in France, sperm concentration dropped by 32%or nearly 2% per year.

Generally speaking, in the West, 20 to 30% of men today have sperm associated with reduced fertility. Less numerous, spermatozoa also have more abnormal morphologies, which can prevent them from reaching the egg. This phenomenon, observed worldwide (see box below), is accompanied by a increase in testicular cancers and birth defects of the genital tract which significantly impair fertility.

On the side of these ladies, the results are no more pleasing: female infertility increases each year by 0.37% and medical disorders causing infertility – endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome… – are constantly increasing.

Infertile generation?

“Are we the sacrificed generation of infertility? » question the three authors of Infertile generation? (ed. Otherwise). At a time when one in thirty children is born thanks to medically assisted procreation (PMA), the question arises. “Awareness is taking place, with the search for a healthier way of life, for us and for our children. But will that be enough? » pursue the authors who, like 15% to 25% of couples fail to have a child and are labeled as “infertile” (see box below).

Free-falling sperm

Between 1973 and 2018 worldwide, the total number of men’s sperm dropped by more than 62% and their concentration by more than 51%. If this decline continues at this rate – which has doubled in twenty years – the scientists explain that the human species might simply end up dying out. These figures lead certain specialists, such as reproductive epidemiologist Shanna Swan, to say that in 2045, the majority of couples will surely have recourse to medically assisted procreation.

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Towards a national strategy once morest infertility

Surprisingly, while the stakes seem high, infertility remains a secondary topic for governments around the world. In France, it is only with the bioethics law of 2021 that a « national infertility plan ». And last February, a parliamentary report, which refers in particular to the role of environmental pollution, recognized that this public health issue had no “never been treated as such by the public authorities” and proposed to create a “fertility hotline” as well as a dedicated Institute.

But if medicine can remedy certain infertilities, assisted reproduction solves less than a third of infertility problems and represents less than 4% of the total births that take place each year. Thus, prevention and complementary and natural solutions have their place to help you strengthen your fertility capital, which we invite you to discover throughout this file.

Infertility is not sterility

• Sterility : impossibility to procreate naturally due to a functional disorder (uterine malformation, absence of viable spermatozoa, etc.).

• Infertility : inability of a couple to achieve pregnancy following one to two years of full, regular sexual intercourse (two to three times a week), without contraception. A term that often covers subfertility.

• Subfertility : difficulties for a couple to have a child following long delays.

• Primary infertility : inability of a couple to have a first child.

• Secondary infertility : inability of a couple who have already had a child together to achieve a second one.

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