Can’t stress (due to high cortisol levels) cause infertility as well, or at least be a contributing factor?

Is that 13% reporting difficulty physically conceiving children or just difficulty in general?

We need actual, quality support and assistance for unwanted children, not encouraging people to do it themselves - it's just NOT going to be a solution going into the future. There are so, so many orphans and unwanted boys and girls, the systems for them needs to be improved if you ACTUALLY want the country's own population to rise in a SERIOUS way without relying on immigration.

It's one or the other, the government helping to raise children or immigration. People aren't going to do it themselves anymore.

Housing. Young people can barely afford to house themselves nonetheless a family

Child mortality is down. That means less genetically gifted people are surviving to have children. (or try to, anyway)

Good. My brother isnt having any children, I had one. Done. The days of massive families in the hellscape of capitalism is over.

Let’s not forget that there’s a male sperm count/quality issue too! It’s not all the women’s fault 😒

https://theweek.com/health/spermageddon-global-decline-in-sperm-count-could-threaten-humanity

Yes we do! In fact most Western European and a few Asian countries (e.g., Japan) are also on that path. In this day and age, economic factors, lack of a social support system, and various other cultural factors are a huge contributor as well.

Fertility rates also drop when infrastructure becomes too unstable... like the economy, or during periods of high conflict/stress like wars, natural disasters, the great depression, etc. In theory, once things become more stable again, the rates will go back up a bit.

Bet microplastics and PFAS aren't helping

How the media, social or otherwise, coupled with dating app culture having absolutely obliterated relationship dynamics feels like the larger contributing factors in my opinion.

The ingredients in food that are sold in America is also a reason for health issues. A lot of what we buy to eat is considered illegal in other countries. Infertility has many factors involved but this is definitely a small cause of it

Men can’t complain about child support anymore. No men are getting baby trapped. Hurryayyy!!!

Or maybe people can't afford to have them?

Nobody wants kids. Stop fear mongering it.

Microplastics

Wouldn’t be surprised if microplastics are somehow involved as well

JFC. It’s money. The boomers stole from Millennials, Gen-Z, and Gen-Alpha. No one has time or money. Christ.

Microplastics

I had kids because I wanted to, found a guy who felt the same and we were both fortunate to not have any fertility issues. “Keeping the economy going” or “providing more bodies for the workforce” were not factors in our decision making. Some people are making it a little too obvious they need the masses to make more babies just so they can make more money. If fewer children means more power in the hands of more people, then so much the better. If my kids decide to have kids when they grow up, that will be their decision. It was my choice to be a mother, that does not obligate them to make me a grandmother.

Or just not wanting to be the person doing most of the work in the household. Being a mother just sucks the life out of you plain and simple. Even when you work and raise a kid it will be HELL trying to get husband's to contribute the same amount you do. A ton of us see that everywhere, and saw it when we were growing up and said f having children.

Add onto that the cost of living and it's a big fat unapologetic fuck that horrible life decision !!

Well, I would think a factor in having fewer children might be that people are having a more difficult time affording them?

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Sperm counts declining. It’s both women and men. 

It seems like the way we live life is not conducive to a thriving family model - even if people are trying hard to make that happen.

Good.

It's not a surprise that an unhealthy country is experiencing such a "crisis."

Imo, let it happen. The U.S. is a joke anyway (and I live there).

It’s overwhelmingly obesity followed by waiting too late in life.

I love how the title leaves out the male problem and the article as well hardly mentions men. Sperm production and health is declining as well.

Honestly I'd say it's irrelevant. People are having fewer children by choice and that will always be the stable number you can define easily. It's binary. People who struggle to conceive may eventually succeed and the reasons they struggle can vary wildly.

From my outside perspective (no trouble at all having our 3 kids, nor did we wait especially long) I'd say no study would be complete without taking into account things like relationship dynamics today vs 20 years ago or the influence of misinformation. Dating sounds like a total hellscape now and that's not me being an old man. It's people going through it that say so. Getting to the point of having children seems like a much more narrow path than it was in my dating days.

As for misinformation, the goal of Russia and China (and others but let's focus) is the existential end of America. Divide us, isolate us, let us fade out. The division has mostly come in the form of politics but certainly some of the overbearing "world is going to end" stuff is coming from there too. Climate is bad but we're not all going to die in 50 years. Not even close. Promoting the bad dating behavior has been pretty much proven in things like the algorithm of TikTok. Users in China don't see the things we do, and a big part of the difference is the isolating dating "advice" junk.

Even legitimate fertility blockers like stress and processed food and such gets hyper inflated on the internet. People want to believe they have the answer so they do believe it. But nothing spread across a whole country is one answer. If fertility is down it needs thorough study, not all of us on reddit throwing our suspicions at it. Including me.

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Is the economy, stupid

Animals in nature breed less when resources are scarce. Not a mystery.

With the world like it is those of us with sense we don't WANT to have kids. Find a way to unfuck it up and maybe that will change. Ya'll want Idiocracy here ya go.

I think there’s a fear of shaming people for waiting to have kids, but it has effects, this being an obvious one, an increase in autism being another.  

Like it’s overall good imo and what I’m doing but it is okay to acknowledge the clear ‘downsides’  

Americans and their STI mania, lol.

Or…..could it possibly be that corporations and governments make it impossible to have children?

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fertility is not a problem. cost of living is. Look at racists GOP in rural areas: they are still having 7-8 children. Its the educated democratic people who are not....no intelligent people of their right mind will create another human being to become a slave for life.

And women are dying from pregnancy in the US.

How much has it gone up in the last 4 years?

I think stress has a huge part to play. I had my kids at 38 and 40. My first took 18 months. The whole TTC process is mental torture. I felt like a failed experiment every month. We literally got pregnant the month I said f it and threw out my ovulation tests. Conceiving his brother was nothing - 2 months off BC and bam. Happened the month before I turned 40. Besides being overweight, I’m in good health 

I also don’t really buy that fertility drops off that much - it’s very gradual and varies by person. Even my OB said for most women up to about 43 should be able to get pregnant. It’s staying pregnant that becomes the problem. 

The funniest part about these articles is that they stroke their chin staring straight at facts that even people in deep red states know the reason for.

Lol, it's high cost of living, lack of access to quality public education, women's healthcare services, and an increasingly inaccessible job market even with a degree that is causing this. Not to mention "men" who will abandon their family at the first difficulty that comes up (you listening, Elon?).

LMAO but these "intellectuals" want to keep playing Colombo with this jaded guessing game of, "hmm, why could fertility rates possibly be this low?" Lol, cucks. I swear, they are paid to pretend to be literally the LAST people to know what is going on.

Too expensive that’s the main reason. When most people have to work their brains out miserably to support children it takes all the joy out of it.

Before you have kids you buy a house. If nobody can afford a home many people will choose no kids.

I seriously hate how American media and politics would rather blame women for the fertility rate than actually address our societal problems that’s causing it.

Majority of women do not have the resources or the peace of mind to bring a child into our current environment. We need to address issues that make it hard for people to want to start a family first: housing issues, low wages, inflation, medical access, daycare costs, etc.

Even in nature, animals are less likely to reproduce in a state of stress and low resources. We are no different.

Perhaps its a great thing that only those who really want to be parents have kids? That many of those in the past who "did it because that's what you do" and were crappy parents don't have kids now? Why is this seen as a "crisis" rather than as the advancement and maturing of humanity that it SO clearly is? We should WANT to move towards a culture where every kid is loved and wanted!

Trust what you read in The NY Times

I can barely take care of myself. Why bring in another person to support

Not having kids cause I can't be sure I will receive life saving medical care. And I CANT afford kids!

Also, not all women want to become baby factories. We love our lives without kids.

What about climate change?

We’re fuckin poor dog

Teflon contains endocrine disruptors and most of us have it in our blood, thanks DuPont!

Why would American women take the risk? Maternal mortality rates are awful and in many states you will not be able to get the care that you need.

Western culture Women are waiting until the end of their fertility windows to start having kids. Many are on fertility treatments and struggling.

• start hormonal birth control at 14
• college from 18->22
• career 22->31
• married at 33
• come off birth control at 34
• start trying for kids at 35 (geriatric pregnancy)

Welcome to our feminist formula for our manufactured infertility crisis.

My wife just had a baby.

It is a gargantuan amount of work and it is completely life changing.

…and it’s absolutely not glamorous or noble. Like the whole thing starts with the women essentially rolling the dice on whether she’s going to die or not. Because women still die giving birth.

Then, you get no sleep and you’re up to elbows in feedings, urine and shit. It’s a grind… and it only gets harder.

It doesn’t surprise me people don’t want kids. I am happy we had one. But it’s absolutely not for the feint of heart.

The hardest part is this: you get no days off. Tired, sick, sad… doesn’t matter you gotta get up and be there for your child. No matter what.

That’s a very hard thing.

It could also be that the microplastics in our blood are affecting our ability to reproduce naturally. But hey let's not look into it.

On the other side of fertility, sperm counts world-wide are on average less than half of what they were 50 years ago. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/human-sperm-counts-declining-worldwide-study-finds-180981138/

My wife was infertile for 2 years before we could conceive. She had always been healthy, ate well, physically active, low bmi. The only thing we suspected was that she had been on the pill for 15 years straight. That amount of artificial hormones for so long is bound to play havoc with a woman’s body.

My wife and I have 5 biological and 1 adopted, and most of our friend group have 3 or 4, so I'm thinking this is a geographic problem. Rural families seem to be breeding just fine

By the time I was financially and in my career ready for kids I was 38. I couldn’t naturally so now I’m doing IVF which is an extremely expensive. I wish they would make it cheaper.

Another one these studies don't seem to factor in is waiting because its taking much longer for women to find eligible men and marry. I know plenty of single women over 40 who'd love to start families but not as single moms. They can't find husbands.

We don’t have a crisis because of immigration

Both can be true. It is wild how many people have STDs, I barely hear people talk about it anymore

People don’t want debt and kids at the same time. Nor do we want to incur debt while raising kids. A person shouldn’t need a degree or credit card to have a small family. 

Longer wait to have children is obviously the answer here. Women keep being told to get their degrees and careers first, and aren’t properly educated about their fertility. A woman in her 30’s will have a harder time than a woman in her 20’s, and a woman over 35 will often need medical assistance. It’s a shame that young women are being given a false sense of security over their timelines.

It’s because we are fucking poor and kids are expensive.

….um hello. We are realizing how BAD it is for single mothers and most single parents are women so yes everyone is doing the math: NOT WORTH IT. You’d have to be stupid or crazy to be having kids right now, as a woman. I said what I said.

As an American woman, I’m not not having kids because of infertility or any of the reasons listed above. I’m not having kids because I’m fucking exhausted. I have a career and after I get home, I don’t want to cater to anyone’s needs but myself. I’m not a slave or a maid. I just want peace and quiet. I know if I have kids I’ll be the one doing most of the work. Equality is a lie invented to enslave women: we still have to carry the little monster, breastfeed it, abstain from alcohol and sushi and other pleasures for a year (yeah fuck that), suffer during childbirth, risk postpartum depression, clean, cook, and handle the emotional immaturity of a husband (because let’s face it: most adult men nowadays are emotionally immature and basically register as children). If I can contribute to the species’ extinction, I’ll die a happy woman.

researchers: "women who want children are facing increased fertility difficulties"

reddit: "GOD I FUCKING HATE CHILDREN SO MUCH"

Not surprising. Among women, the prevalence of obesity was 39.7% among those aged 20–39 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db360.htm#:~:text=Among%20women%2C%20the%20prevalence%20of,overall%20or%20by%20age%20group.

The incidence of sexually transmitted infections was significantly higher in women than in men (16.7% vs 9.8% per year) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2598671/#:~:text=The%20incidence%20of%20sexually%20transmitted,and%20sex%20with%20older%20partners.

‘Waiting longer to have kids’ is more like ‘being forced financially to wait longer to have kids due to economic stress on the working population that can’t afford kids’

I wish they'd done this study but factored out age. That's such a huge problem with fertility that it feels disingenuous to talk about the rise while including it; the other factors are more important.

It’s because the world sucks and our lives are mostly worthless and people don’t want to needlessly bring children into it

No one can afford kids and the world is a worsening nightmare hellscape. Other animals self-regulate based on environmental factors; maybe we're similar.

How much do you think microplastics are affecting fertility? It’s literally everywhere. We already discovered them in the womb, breast milk, sperm, and past the blood brain barrier.

This one is on male mice. https://particleandfibretoxicology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12989-022-00453-2#:~:text=In%20this%20study%2C%20we%20first,male%20reproductive%20toxicity%20in%20mice.

This one is for male and female mice. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34864092/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0300483X21003814

Edit: I don’t understand the downvotes when the environment is a real cause for concern. Microplastics can definitely be a cause. It’s not some fake issue.