SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: The Facts of (Modern) Life ; Male Fertility Isn't What It Used to Be: Sperm Counts Have Halved in 50 Years and Disorders of the Reproductive System Are on the Increase. What's Causing the `Feminisation' of Men? STEVE CONNOR Reports

Beginning of article

In 1991, a Danish scientist presented the results of a study to a World Health Organisation conference, showing that the sperm counts of Western men had fallen by about a half over the previous 50 years. Professor Niels Skakkebaek of the University of Copenhagen could offer no explanation for the findings, but neither could he dismiss them as a mere statistical fluke. More than a decade later, scientists are still trying to explain the apparent feminisation of modern man.

There is now mounting evidence that something quite serious is happening to male fertility, and not just in sperm counts. It encompasses a range of disorders of the male reproductive system, and …