The Guardian

Making babies is beginning to look as difficult for men as it always has been for women

The sperm count of men in the west has halved in 40 years. Changing lifestyles won’t help. The problem is an environmental one
Woody Allen and Robert Walden in Allen’s 1972 film Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex … Photograph: Rollins-Joffe/Rex/Shutterstock

Men. You had one job. And now look what’s happened! The sperm count of western men has . It is likely to decline further. This is a wake-up call. Human extinction beckons. Twitter, in its full nihilistic embrace, has welcomed this news as good. It is kind of funny. Sperm always is somehow, especially if your job description is harridan, as mine is. For although there are millions of the damn squirmers in every ejaculation, you only ever need the one, the tenacious one that

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Guardian

The Guardian4 min read
Whether In Song Or In Silence, Shane MacGowan Exuded The Very Essence Of Life
Shane MacGowan and I sat in near silence for two hours last year. We were at his home, just outside Dublin. I’d been warned by his wife, the writer Victoria Mary Clarke, that he was depressed and anxious, not really in the mood to talk. But nothing c
The Guardian4 min read
‘Almost Like Election Night’: Behind The Scenes Of Spotify Wrapped
There’s a flurry of activities inside Spotify’s New York City’s offices in the Financial District. “It’s almost like election night,” Louisa Ferguson, Spotify’s global head of marketing experience says, referring to a bustling newsroom. At the same t
The Guardian8 min read
PinkPantheress: ‘I Don’t Think I’m Very Brandable. I Dress Weird. I’m Shy’
PinkPantheress no longer cares what people think of her. When she released her lo-fi breakout tracks Break it Off and Pain on TikTok in early 2021, aged just 19, she did so anonymously, partly out of fear of being judged. Now, almost three years late

Related