Is China's love compass pointing south?

For quite some time now it has been known that China's one child policy will one day become unsustainable, with too many people leaving industry and agriculture due to old age, and too few young people being born to take their place.

Logically speaking, the answer to this appears simple. Increase birth rates by having more children. However, if a recently released report proves to be true, this might be much harder than is sounds.

Infertility

According to figures presented to a reproductive health symposium in Hangzhou earlier this month, fertility levels in China have declines alarmingly over the last few decades, leading to 1 in 10 Chinese couples now being affected by infertility.

"The problem deserves attention from all walks of life because it threatens the quality and structure of our future population" Huang Hefeng, Zhejiang University.

Experts state that the problems are two fold, effecting both males and female.

Male - Pointing South

According to experts, the fertility of a Chinese male has dramatically decreased over the last 30+ years, with the nationwide average sperm counts declining from 100 million sperm per milliliter during the 1970s to 40 million per milliliter today.

Though there are many different reasons for this decline, scientists at the Hangzhou symposium put much of this decrease down to phthalate and so-called "White pollution".

Phthalate area chemical used in the production of soft or maluable plastics, and have been shown to effect the hormonal balance within the human body by mimicking estrogen - a female hormone - thus impacting on male sexual development and performance. They can be introduced into humans through exposure to consumer products, the dumping of industrial waste, and the dumping of plastics and byproducts containing phthalate.

Also raised at the symposium was the increase in male impudence (erectile dysfunction) brought on by to smoking, drinking, the adoption of a more western diet, and the exposure to unhealthy influences.

Female - Interventions

While female fertility is also effected by environmental issue and diet, experts voiced increasing concern at the impact that multiple abortions were having on female fertility, and have warned that while a single abortion may have only a percentile impact, the more procedures a women undergoes the greater the risk to their future ability to conceive or carry to term.

Though illegal, it is still well known for women in China to abort one or more female infants in an attempt to ensure that their single legally permitted child is a male.

Also raise as reason behind declining fertility was the increasing number of Chinese women delaying pregnancy until they were in their 30s.

Unspoken reasons

While Chinese health experts have publicly acknowledge the impact that a broad selection of issues are having on fertility, China watchers have noted that they have yet to substantially address many of the social factors that play a part in fertility.

One of the concerns raised by China watchers was the lack of apparent concern over the effect that over-copulation is having on male fertility.

Over-copulation is the situation created when a man expends sperm through masturbation or sexual activity, but does not permitted sufficient time (optimally, 3 or more days) between ejaculations to allow his sperm to recover and mature.

If an individual over-copulates his fertility can be seriously impaired even if he is healthy and otherwise capably of producing high quality sperm.

China watchers have also expressed concern about growing STD rates, particularly diseases such as chlamydia can have a dramatic impact on fertility which present only minimal external symptoms.

"[China's] silent chlamydia epidemic may cause many women to be infertile, to have ectopic pregnancies, and be at greater risk of HIV infection" William Parish, Centennial Professor in Chinese Studies, University of Chicago

China's STD rates have steadily risen in over the last generation, and rates in some areas are now compatible to Western countries, such as the US, where liberal mores are far more common and where religious beliefs, as well as outmoded superstitions, have impinged on the adoption of barrier contraception.

"The prevalence of chlamydia across China is exactly what it is in many developed countries, including the United States," Dr. Myron Cohen, J. Herbert Bate professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology, Chapel Hill School of Medicine, University of North Carolina.

Children of Men?

While China's fertility problems and declining birth rate are not in themselves critical, and are not likely to become so, China is likely to face far greater problems dealing with an aging population than neighboring Japan and Western countries will, because it has yet to reach a high level of development.

As such, while developed countries can use technology to increase industrial and agricultural efficiency, and to aid in caring for the elderly China must still depend on manpower. Which will soon start to decline.

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