Spermageddon

Are the stats misleading, or have we been distracted by fears of overpopulation, when in fact spermageddon – a fertility time bomb – has been sneaking up on us all along?

Inevitably, there were headlines about "Spermageddon" and the risk that humans would disappear, but then we moved on to chase other shiny objects.

Is humankind really facing "Spermageddon," a decline in sperm count that could spell the end of the species? Maybe, maybe not.

Now a group of interdisciplinary researchers from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology contend that fears of an impending Spermageddon have been vastly overstated.

The other problem here is that the 50 per cent decline in sperm counts, or "spermageddon" as it’s been called, has been called into question. Last year, "The Future of Sperm," a paper published by researchers from both Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, showed that the methodology behind the sperm panic was flawed.

Some took issue with this forecast of an imminent Spermageddon. A group of Harvard researchers stated that the study was based on "questionable assumptions", such as the belief that sperm count alone is an accurate predictor of overall male fertility.