A series of studies have shown a sharp decline in the sperm count of men during the last few decades. And one researcher has made the bleak prediction that the human race will be infertile in 50 years. Stefan Chmelik, founder of Harley Street’s New Medicine Group, made the claim while speaking with The Telegraph.

“There are scant mainstream medical treatments for male fertility and, at current rates of sperm decline, the human race will be infertile in 50 years.”

Chmelik claims that it is the stress of a modern lifestyle that is primarily causing this decline.

“No generation of human being has ever lived under the type of stress that people are now experiencing in developed countries. We’re not stressed about not having a roof over our heads any longer – it’s about too many emails, work deadlines and home commitments. The result being your brain can’t distinguish between physiological and psychological threat and it only has one response, which is to release Adrenalin (which has a detrimental effect on sperm production).”

The study and treatment of fertility in modern medicine have so far largely been the female domain, with most treatments focusing on women. But alarming reports are beginning to appear that it could be the male population that eventually makes the human race infertile in 50 years.

One 2012 report, which presented the results of the study of over 26,000 French men, showed that the sperm count had fallen by a third between 1989 and 2005. A 2007 report in the UK presented the results of a study done on one city in the country. It showed that sperm counts had declined by over 29 percent between 1989 and 2002. And more recently, in the summer of 2017, a study by scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem analyzed data from over 43,000 North American, European, Australian, and New Zealand men concluded that the average sperm count had fallen by almost 60 percent in the past 40 years. The lead author of the research, Dr. Hagai Levine called the results “an urgent wake-up call.”

Spermageddon: Why the human race could be infertile in 50 yearshttps://t.co/qo0A4aD8qE — The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 27, 2018

Male infertility results from the production of too few sperm (also known as having a low sperm count), the morphology or the size and shape of the sperm, poor swim ability of the sperm (also known as poor motility) or a condition called azoospermia, where a man can’t produce sperm at all. Besides conditions such as testicular damage, congenital defects, hypogonadism, and ejaculation disorders, a number of habits associated with modern lifestyle have also been linked with problems regarding male fertility. Among them, consumption of alcohol, smoking, obesity, use of antidepressants, wearing tight pants, and the EM radiation from Wi-Fi routers are some of the most highlighted reasons. A recent study has also linked the consumption of ibuprofen with reduced fertility.