Listen Up, Men

Posted on Dec 9, 2004 at 12:32 PM in Adoption

If you’re embarrassed by frank discussions, read no further.

In the past few years I’ve become much more aware of fertility issues due to the fact that Jeremy and I wanted to start a family. A woman’s ability to have a child is a huge deal and is not a subject to be taken lightly. (For the record, and because I have no shame related to this topic, Jeremy and I did not adopt Livia due to infertility. This is one life struggle we haven’t had to deal with. My health concerns and our high regard for adoption were the top two reasons.) Anyhow, I am absolutely convinced that our society’s high level of problems with infertility are mostly environmental. I have all sorts of thoughts on subjects from birth control pills to processed foods, and, as I am no scientist, I am probably wrong on 99% of them. Still, I usually think that infertility is a women’s issue… One article on CNN made me think a little differently. Guys, if you’re reading this from your laptop, well, for the sake of your future offspring, think again about your positioning.

7 Comments

  1. charity Dec 9, 2004 1:56 PM

    i can’t tell if you are generally concerned about this problem or just being facetious. i think this article is hilarious.

  2. bobw Dec 9, 2004 1:59 PM

    I’d be interested to know if our society is any more or less fertile than others. I’m too lazy/busy right now to google it myself, but I’m suspecting not. seems like we’re more prone to go through all the infertility treatments, etc because there are many more options available now?

  3. Andy Dec 9, 2004 2:14 PM

    What if you were the poor guy whose picture got nabbed for the article? Could you ever live that down?

  4. Haley Dec 9, 2004 3:55 PM

    Ha! Andy has a good point … at least they didn’t use his name, although it makes me wonder if they even told the guy what the photo was for. As a reporter and photographer, I would have to say that you would probably have a LOT of trouble getting guys to volunteer to be the photo op for that particular story.

  5. RT Dec 9, 2004 5:10 PM

    I’m hoping they just pulled his pic from a stock photography stash. On second thought, eh, who cares? Women have their faces next to embarrassing subjects all the time these days.

    CT, just so you know, I’m working on “The Laptop Repositioning Awareness Act” as we speak.

  6. Megan Dec 9, 2004 8:40 PM

    We just read this article earlier today ourselves. After laughing (a little) I said, “Geez – and to think you could have avoided the vasectomy after all. We should have just gotten you a laptop…”

  7. Sarah B. Dec 10, 2004 12:36 PM

    My question in regards to the article is exactly how they measured “scrotal temperature,” and who were the immodest men who signed up for the study? Or perhaps they were just financially desperate and would rather have their privates probed than get stuck with a huge needle to donate plasma.

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