The fertility crisis, with Dr Shanna Swan
The Liz Earle Wellbeing Show
Liz Earle
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2022
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of The Liz Earle Wellbeing Show, Liz is joined by Dr Shanna Swan, one of the world’s leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologists, to discuss the fertility crisis. She is also author of Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race.
In this eye-opening chat, Liz and Shanna discuss the decline in reproductive health and fertility around the world, as well as endocrine disruptors around our homes that may be affecting our hormones, plus how to protect our loved ones.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and a very warm welcome to the Lizzo well-being show. And today, well, we are in for a treat. |
| 0:20.0 | I am joined by one of the world's leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologists, |
| 0:26.8 | Dr. Shana Swan. Now her work hit the headlines in 2017 when her paper called |
| 0:34.5 | Temporal Trends in sperm count found that between 1973 and 2011 sperm counts had dropped by more than |
| 0:44.2 | 59 percent. Yes, 59 percent among men living in western countries. Well, a media frenzy ensued, |
| 0:54.6 | but as you will soon hear from Shana, very little has been done since to address the fertility crisis |
| 1:00.8 | at hand. Well, she's since written a brilliant book on the topic. It's called Countdown, |
| 1:05.8 | how our modern world is threatening sperm counts, altering male and female reproductive development |
| 1:12.5 | and imperiling the future of the human race. And she argues in this book that the cause of our |
| 1:18.9 | declining fertility isn't due to something inherently wrong with our bodies or the way they |
| 1:24.1 | evolved. It's the chemicals in our environment and our unhealthy lifestyle practices that are |
| 1:30.8 | disrupting hormonal balance and causing varying degrees of reproductive havoc. Well, while falling |
| 1:38.0 | sperm counts are the canary in the coal mine, it's not just men who were affected. Research shows |
| 1:44.1 | that in some parts of the world, the average 20 something today is less fertile than her grandmother |
| 1:50.3 | was at 35. Well, I've just had a very, and I mean very eye-opening chat with Shana. We dive into |
| 1:59.0 | much more detail about these alarming changes, not only about fertility, but about, well, all kinds of |
| 2:05.7 | health issues for the planet and especially for ourselves. We've talked about why they're happening |
| 2:11.6 | as well as what we can do to help protect ourselves and our loved ones. I really do hope that you |
| 2:17.0 | find interesting and informative. Please share your thoughts with me on Instagram and all our social |
| 2:22.9 | media platforms after the show. Love to hear what you think. So without any further ado, let's hear |
| 2:29.2 | from Shana. So Shana, a very, very warm welcome. I know this is going to be an absolutely |
| 2:35.2 | riveting discussion. Can we start with a little bit about your background and how you became to be |
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