Until about a decade ago, weekdays at the Agatsya Sperm Bank in Rajkot saw men, aged between 20 to 30 years, queue up outside the facility. A quick screening and the young, athletic, qualified, English-speaking men among them would be picked out. For, it would be certain that they would have sufficient volumes of “healthy swimmers”, enough to be transported to clinics across Gujarat for assisted reproduction. At the time, 70 per cent of the semen samples received were accepted and marked “ready for use”. But that was then, when the Indian sperm was healthy and in abundance.
Today, it is the opposite. “Now, 70 per cent of the samples we receive are rejected,” said Dr Yogesh Choksi, a microbiologist who started the facility in 1997. His is the oldest registered cryobank in Gujarat. “Even as the number of donors has, by and large, remained steady, the quality and volume of semen has fallen down sharply,” he said. When Choksi started the bank, he recalls that any given semen sample would range between 3.5ml and 4ml with a sperm count of 80-100 million per millilitre, which was considered normal at the time. That way, it was possible to fill five vials with a single semen sample. But now, “a single semen sample measures between 1ml and 1.5ml and the sperm count remains as low as 15-20mpm,” he said. “We barely get one full vial from a single sample.”
Shocking, right? But it is a reality that has been staring us in the face all along. And combined with a decline in testosterone levels in Indian men, it has consequently resulted in the rise in infertility cases.
SWIMMERS TAKE A DIP
Bu hikaye THE WEEK dergisinin May 23, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye THE WEEK dergisinin May 23, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
War Over Wounded Earth
For the BJP andthe Congress, the ravaged farmlands of Vidarbha represent a cxitieal battleground in their larger struggle to win Maharashtra
Say no to continual elections
Following the recommendations of a high-level committee led by former president Ram Nath Kovind to streamline the widely scattered schedule of national, state and local elections, the Union cabinet has reportedly approved two constitutional amendment bills for likely introduction in Parliament. Predictably, the return of the ‘one nation, one election’ issue to news has set off a flurry of objections by several opposition leaders.
Fabulously, fashionably funny
The third season of the Karan Johar-produced Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives dropped on Netflix, but articles criticising the show appear in some news site or the other almost daily. If it is so bad, why keep writing about it? And if it is so bad, why would the superpowers at Netflix, who are harder to meet than the prime minister, commission the show season after season?
All in the family
The Chitaras have been passing down the secret art of Mata Ni Pachedi through generations for more than 400 years now
Raise a toast to Vidya Balan
Vidya Balan is a New Year baby. At 45, she is aglow in the most beautiful way, having won the hearts and admiration of countless fans across the world, who watched the supremely talented actor take a public tumble on stage at a high-profile promotional event recently, sharing the platform with no less a dancer than the eternally graceful Madhuri Dixit.
Death no bar
Being alive is not a legal requirement to be elected president of the United States
The Lotus POTUS
You should visit us one of these days— there is so much excitement in our USA! No, I don’t mean the famous USA—the Ulhasnagar Sindhi Association of Mumbai.
RAY OF HOPE
Actor and cancer survivor Lisa Ray talks to oncologist Dr Jame Abraham about inner strength and her surrogacy journey
LEVERAGE AI TO ENHANCE WORK
AT THE WEEK Health Summit, Siddharth Bagga, head (retail, CPG and health care), Google Cloud, elaborated on the significant work that Google has been doing in health care through artificial intelligence (AI).
PRESSURE POINTS
Author and MP Shashi Tharoor and motivational speaker Gaur Gopal Das on how to find healing and meaning in today's world