Dr. Shanna Swan - A Global Fertility Crisis

Oct 13, 2021
Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo-kSxHNSDQ

Shanna H. Swan, Ph.D., is one of the world’s leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologists and a professor of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. An award-winning scientist, her work examines the impact of environmental exposures, including chemicals such as phthalates and Bisphenol A, on men’s and women’s reproductive health and the neurodevelopment of children.

- Sperm counts dropped by 59.3% from 1973 to 2011, possibly in large part due to exposure to environmental chemicals like phthalates
- Sperm count, testosterone and fertility are dropping, and testicular cancer and miscarriage are rising, all at about 1% per year
- Phthalate syndrome refers to a number of disturbances to male reproductive development that have been observed after exposure to phthalates in utero
- Women’s exposure to phthalates during pregnancy is linked to male babies’ anogenital distance (AGD) — the distance from the anus to the base of the penis — with higher exposure associated with shortened AGD
- Later in life, shorter AGD is linked with a smaller penis and poorer semen quality, such that Swan believes AGD at birth is predictive of adult reproductive function
Swan believes that humans, as a species, satisfy several of the criteria for endangerment and our species is threatened due to phthalates and other chemicals’ effects on fertility