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When Manu Fisi’ihoi and his wife Hannah were struggling to conceive, he admits he never thought it would be because of him – coming from a large Tongan family, he could surely have children.
“As much as we want to stay upbeat and positive about it all, there is always a feeling of jealousy, a feeling of anger,” he told Newshub.
They have been trying to have a child for six years, but Manu’s sperm count is almost zero.
“I even got to a point where I told her if it was really important for her to have a child, to leave and to be with someone else who could help her,” he admits. .
“But she decided for some strange reason that she didn’t want it with anyone else and we would do everything we could to try to make it work.”
They were able to access IVF, but it ended in heartache.
“Last month my wife miscarried. She was nine weeks old.”
Fertility is a difficult topic that men often don’t want to talk about and are often unaware of. Because unless you are trying to have a baby, why would you know how your sperm is doing?
“There are a lot of guys who think that it won’t be them, that they don’t have a lot of role to play and that it is bound to be their partner,” says Dr Phill McChesney, consultant and fertility specialist at Fertility Associates. in Auckland.
The prediction
But an American scientist says stories like Manu Fisi’ihoi’s are going to become more and more common.
Reproductive epidemiologist Dr Shanna Swan has been tracking sperm counts in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand.
She looked at 185 studies involving 45,000 men and found that between 1973 and 2011, sperm count dropped by 52%.
“It’s not just that he’s fallen, but that he’s fallen to a point where, it’s the median, so half of the men are very close to having trouble conceiving,” he said. – she told Newshub in New York.
Based on that trajectory, and if nothing improves, Swan says most couples will need to use assisted reproduction like donors and IVF by 2045.
While she admits it’s speculative and needs to stabilize at some point, Swan says there’s no sign that things are getting better.
“When I say it hasn’t stabilized, if you look at the entire 1973-2011 period, then say ‘OK, let’s get close, how about the last 30 years’: same slope. Last 20 years, same slope Last 10 years, same slope No evidence in the past of a ceiling.
The prediction that there could be many more men like him is a cold consolation for Manu.
“Knowing that other men are going through this doesn’t make it any easier. It’s actually quite sad to know that there is more,” he says.
The possible cause
We’ve all heard the warnings about hot laptops, cell phones in pockets, and the usual risk factors like alcohol, tobacco, and obesity.
But Dr Swan says there is something worse and hidden: easily absorbed hormone-disrupting chemicals called phthalates.
“There’s a lot of evidence that this stuff has an impact on our hormones. We just need to listen to that evidence and make the changes that are needed,” she says.
Phthalates make some plastics flexible and are also used in perfumes.
They are found in food packaging, cosmetics like hairspray and shaving foam, as well as in cleaning products.
In 2017, a report from the Ministry of Primary Industries found that phthalates in butter, fresh meat and take-out noodles had been leached through the packaging.
MPI told Newshub that the exposure and risks are low, but in his new book Count Down, Dr Swan says it is time for better regulation, especially since the most damaging exposure is produced for a fetus in the womb.
“We have to regulate at low doses, because we’re exposed to very low doses. They’re risky, people don’t accept that, and I think a lot of regulators say, ‘well, if it’s a low dose, it can’t hurt you. ‘ Well, that’s actually not true: during development, fetuses are very, very sensitive at very low doses, ”she says.
This means that it’s not so much what someone is doing now that is responsible for their low sperm count, but rather what their parents did while they were in the womb.
“You cannot control what your mother was exposed to when you were in utero. But you can control what you are exposed to, to some extent, as an adult.”
Companies are starting to disclose if something is phthalate free on the bottle, but Dr Swan says we’ve been through this with BPA before, and companies are still finding a way around the problem.
“They can say it’s bisphenol A free, when it contains these other forms of bisphenol. They don’t have to disclose it, and these other forms are just as harmful. let’s call it Whack-a-mole, or an unfortunate substitution. “
She calls on New Zealand to be a world leader by pushing for an outright ban.
Encouragement to open
Another group of researchers in the United States questioned Dr. Swan’s findings. They discovered that there was little evidence that ‘spermageddon’ was upon us.
Dr Phill McChensey agrees that Swan’s study is alarmist, but says it’s important to be alarmist about this stuff because otherwise you won’t get action.
“If we take note and think carefully about what we can do to change that, how can we make things better, what legislative things need to change, how can we make sure that companies think about the safety of their products before to put them on the shelf, so I think we’re headed in the right direction. “
He says the men gradually realize it takes two, consider the possibility of it being them, and get tested.
“There are guys now taking the bull by the horns and saying they’re going to get checked out and make sure they’re okay.”
Although he admits that men are still hesitant about the perceived embarrassment of producing a sample.
“It’s a very simple thing to do, and compared to the amount of fertility testing we do on women, guys definitely have an easier job.”
Through his YouTube series, and this interview, Manu wants more men, especially Mori and Pasifika, to express themselves and connect.
“We’re too proud to talk about it, it’s almost taboo on the islands to talk about your sexuality and your private parts. Everyone gets really immature about it, or too sensitive.”
It also has a message for those who have become good parents: enjoy your time with your children.
“Hold your children much more, love them more, teach them more. “
Despite their setbacks, Manu and Hannah Fisi’ihoi do everything to make things work.
They just applied for their second cycle of IVF.
“My ultimate hope is to be a dad. I want to someday teach him how to tie his shoes, or him to tie his shoes. Take them for ice cream. I think a lot of parents take all these little things for granted,” he says. .
Many more could miss the “little things” if the trend continues.
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