Across the globe, male sperm count is on the decline—a decades-long drop that has been alternately blamed on pesticides, heavy metals, obesity, and potentially microplastics. More worrying, the decline seems to be speeding up—by the calculations of one male fertility founder, sperm counts have fallen by 50% to 60% over the last four decades.
“'Spermpocalypse' is one way of putting it, ‘spermageddon’ is another—‘sperm count zero’ is my preferred term choice,” Khaled Kteily, CEO of male fertility startup Legacy, said at Fortune’s Brainstorm Health conference in Dana Point, Calif., on Monday.
