How did we get fertility so wrong Am I Normal with Mona Chalabi
Transcriber:
Biologically speaking,
I am right in the middle
of my reproductive age.
That’s the years between 15 and 49,
when most people with ovaries
are able to have children.
Socially speaking, that means
I’m right in the middle
of roughly 30 years' worth
of public commentary,
suggestions and judgments
about my fertility.
Whether it’s regular pleas from my mum
to give her grandchildren,
or depictions of desperate
females in movies and TV,
it’s a reality that is hard to escape.
And let’s not forget about the ads
that have been following me
around the internet
since the age of roughly 25,
promising to track my ovulation,
confirm a pregnancy
or let me know about places nearby
where I can freeze my eggs.
But what about the sperm?
Why have none of my male friends
or the guys I’ve dated
been exposed to this same pressure?
[Am I Normal? With Mona Chalabi]
Well, we know from historical data
that for generations,
research into fertility has focused
on poking and prodding uteruses,
while our understanding of male fertility
has continued to lag behind.
For example, in the US,
there was a 50-year gap
between the founding of the American Board
of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1927
and the formation of the American Society
of Andrology in 1975.
And today in the US,
there are an estimated
five reproductive endocrinologists
who mostly specialize
with female patients,
for every one male fertility specialist.
Research into male fertility really only
began to make waves in the 1990s.
And since then, research has started
to chip away at the persistent myth
that a man’s sperm is viable
over his entire life.
A study from 2013 found
that there is a big change that happens
in male fertility after the age of 34.
At age 35, their sperm count
begins to drop.
At 40, the sperm concentration,
as well as the percentage of sperm
with a normal shape, begins to decline.
At 43, sperm motility decreases,
And from the age of 45,
semen ejaculate volume begins to go down.
What all of this means is
that from the age of 34,
there is a declining likelihood
that a man will father a child
through intercourse.
And that probability continues
to decline as they get older.
Crucially, that decline exists
independently of the age
of their female partner.
Because of research like this,
a growing number of physicians are arguing
that men have biological clocks, too.
This is really important
because most fertility research
did not control for the age of the father.
What this means is
that so much of our understanding
about how women in their late 30s
are struggling to get pregnant
has not taken into account
that many of them are trying
to get pregnant with men in their 40s.
Imagine the other fertility breakthroughs
that could come about
with even better research –
and the effect that all of that would have
on our culture and our behavior.
Young couples might be able
to better prepare when to have children.
Guys would be hounded by ads
on when to freeze their sperm,
and I would have even more reason
to continue to date young hot men.
We’ve always known
that it takes two to tango.
Now it’s time for research
to give both partners equal billing.