‘Spermageddon’: what’s going on with male fertility?

Wearing loose cotton boxer shorts. Icing your testicles. Doing blood transfusions to ‘clean’ your body of microplastics. Eating raw garlic. These are all unproven methods to boost sperm count being promoted by wellness influencers.

On TikTok and Instagram, hashtags such as #malefertility, #semenanalysis and #sperm attract hundreds of millions of views, while, in the White House, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has claimed that men’s fertility is in drastic decline, partially due to unhealthy diets.

What scientific evidence is there to claims that the average sperm count and quality is falling? And how do these claims play into men’s anxieties about their masculinity? On today’s show, the BBC’s global health reporter, Jacqui Wakefield, speaks to men across the world concerned about their fertility, and to reproductive experts who help explain what’s really going on.

Read Jacqui’s article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8921982pgzo

Producers: Hannah Moore and Mhairi MacKenzie

Executive producer: Sam Bonham

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Simon from Miami, who is trying to boost his sperm count by wearing ice packs in the sauna. Credit: BBC.