{"id":46718,"date":"2026-05-12T23:34:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-vm.com\/?p=46718"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:34:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:34:01","slug":"rfk-jr-says-men-in-the-1970s-had-twice-the-sperm-count-of-teenage-boys-today-existential-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-vm.com\/?p=46718","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr. says men in the 1970s had twice the sperm count of teenage boys today: \u2018Existential crisis\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is raising alarms over America\u2019s declining birth rate. He even called it an \u201cexistential crisis\u201d tied to growing concerns about fertility and environmental health.<\/strong><\/p><div class=\"qcwvs6a041d736f76e\" ><div style=\"width:100%; max-width:1200px; margin:0 auto;\">\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/bolt-casino.com?r=0BFDBF1283\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n    <img \n      src=\"https:\/\/news-vm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/f8693ebb-2018-480f-a2f7-0096810c07f0.jpg\" \n      alt=\"200% Deposit Bonus + 10% Cashback\" \n      style=\"width:100%; height:auto; display:block; border-radius:8px; cursor:pointer;\"\n    \/>\n  <\/a>\n<\/div><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 1201px) {\r\n.qcwvs6a041d736f76e {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) {\r\n.qcwvs6a041d736f76e {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) {\r\n.qcwvs6a041d736f76e {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) {\r\n.qcwvs6a041d736f76e {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (max-width: 767px) {\r\n.qcwvs6a041d736f76e {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n<\/style>\r\n\n<p>Speaking during a White House event on Monday,\u00a0<a id=\"182210\" href=\"https:\/\/en.newsner.com\/tag\/robert-f-kennedy-jr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" type=\"post_tag\">Kennedy<\/a>\u00a0said: \u201cIt\u2019s a threat not only to our economy,\u201d but also \u201cto our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy said the department is currently looking into whether factors including obesity, metabolic health, pesticides, endocrine disruptors, and what he described as a \u201ctoxic soup that our young women are walking around in\u201d could be contributing to fertility problems.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kennedy, the decline in fertility among women began around 2007, pointing to government data that shows\u00a0<a id=\"3941\" href=\"https:\/\/en.newsner.com\/tag\/pregnancy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" type=\"post_tag\">birth rates\u00a0<\/a>have generally dropped since then.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-this-is-an-existential-crisis-for-our-country\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u201cThis is an existential crisis for our country\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>He also argued that men are facing a growing reproductive health problem of their own.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 1970, men had twice the sperm count as our teenagers do today,\u201d Kennedy said, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/rfk-jr-says-men-in-the-70s-had-twice-as-much-sperm-as-teenage-boys-today-existential-crisis-11972098?link_source=ta_first_comment&amp;taid=6a02690fa82cb8000194db23&amp;utm_campaign=peoplemagazine&amp;utm_content=manual&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawRvrY1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBiNHBQcEVmU2I3V3lsY0VPc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHh9rAcdoD9KImD09u-apPCC5JMoLIVJqten4aMhlJF1eKAP1-WL8wtOO3yY4_aem_CBAz1wmeq0zjv0o1yGQ_Rg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">PEOPLE<\/a>. \u201cThis is an existential crisis for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The health secretary has repeatedly pointed to concerns about falling sperm counts as a major reason behind the nation\u2019s declining birth rate. His comments reference findings from a 2022 review published in the journal Human Reproductive Update, which analyzed global sperm count trends \u2013 though the study itself did not specifically mention teenagers.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy has made similar claims in previous interviews as he continues pushing the issue into the national spotlight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have fertility rates that are just spiraling,\u201d Kennedy told Fox News host Jesse Watters in April 2025. \u201cA teenager today, an American teenager, has less testosterone than a 68-year-old man.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-trump-administration-proposed-a-new-rule\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trump administration proposed a new rule<\/h2>\n<p>At the same time, the broader scientific debate over sperm count decline remains unsettled. While multiple studies have suggested sperm counts may be falling, researchers have also cautioned that tracking long-term reproductive trends is complicated and difficult to measure consistently over decades.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea of a global decrease in sperm count is \u2018an important hypothesis, but the data is not good [enough] to be able to draw conclusions,\u2019\u201d Dolores Lamb, a male reproductive health researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine, told Scientific American in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The issue has also become a growing focus for\u00a0<a id=\"17445\" href=\"https:\/\/en.newsner.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" type=\"post_tag\">Donald Trump<\/a>, who has said reversing the country\u2019s falling birth rate will be a priority during his second term. Over the weekend, the Trump administration proposed a new rule designed to make it easier for employers to offer fertility-related benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is raising alarms over America\u2019s declining birth rate. He even called it an \u201cexistential crisis\u201d tied to growing concerns about fertility and environmental health. Speaking during a White House event on Monday,\u00a0Kennedy\u00a0said: \u201cIt\u2019s a threat not only to our economy,\u201d but also \u201cto our national security.\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,17,11,20,24,15,12,25,22,18,16,21,14,23,13],"class_list":["post-46718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chronic-diseases","tag-fitness","tag-health-tips","tag-healthcare-technology","tag-healthy-lifestyle","tag-healthy-living","tag-medical-advice","tag-medical-awareness","tag-medical-research","tag-mental-health","tag-nutrition","tag-patient-care","tag-preventive-care","tag-public-health","tag-wellness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>RFK Jr. says men in the 1970s had twice the sperm count of teenage boys today: \u2018Existential crisis\u2019 - VM News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news-vm.com\/?p=46718\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RFK Jr. says men in the 1970s had twice the sperm count of teenage boys today: \u2018Existential crisis\u2019 - VM News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is raising alarms over America\u2019s declining birth rate. He even called it an \u201cexistential crisis\u201d tied to growing concerns about fertility and environmental health. 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