Contraceptive pill to blame for male infertility: Vatican

[Are_grits_groceries]

The contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said.

The pill "has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature" through female urine, said Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, in the report.

"We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill," he said, without elaborating further.

"We are faced with a clear anti-environmental effect which demands more explanation on the part of the manufacturers."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/04/2458847.htm

Okaaaaaaaaaaay. This is a new one..........

[JerseygirlCT]

1. Those evil women, interfering with sperm again...

I note the great concern expressed here for women and their health.

These guys are unbelievable.

[Warpy]

2. Well, I've suspected for years that all the hierarchy

worship that thing between their legs.

Women are nothing more than anthropoid cattle to be bred at will.

They reluctantly decided we had souls so they could send us all to hell.

[Taverner]

11. Yeah I picked up on that too

They weren't just pulling nonsense out of their asses that the pill causes infertility, but it's affront to MALE sperm!

Such sexist bastards

[meow2u3]

27. I never knew there was such a thing as female sperm!

:evilgrin:

[Donnachaidh]

3. oh brother -- they must have hired a fundie to pull this out of their holy asses

Yeah -- those WICKED wicked women who don't want to be broodmares are at fault for male problems. Hey Pope -- why don't you just hand out tasers and baseball bats, so the ignorant menfolk can just beat women into submission? :sarcasm:

Just more proof that RELIGION causes more problems for humanity than it solves. If anything deserves to be torn out at the roots, it's organized religious groups like this.

[JerseygirlCT]

10. I think they rather pre-date those fundies -

perhaps the fundies got their viewpoint of women from the boys of the RCC hierarchy, though.

[Donnachaidh]

22. perhaps, but the fundies have learned to put it into terms the press likes to see

That press release sounds positively Rovian.

[malaise]

16. Why is this his problem when he and his priests refuse to

breed anyone because they don't think women and children should share their church property.
Maybe they're the perfect sample group for the scientific experiment to actually seek proof that he's not talking bullshit again. Oh my bad - he claims to know everything - he can't be wrong. :puke:

[Angleae]

33. Why would they need to "hire" a fundie?

This is the Vatican we're talking about, they're all fundies, it's a requirement for the job.

[roguevalley]

4. maybe two millennia of warped sexuality and woman hating has something

to do with their unusual pronouncements. I laugh when the church talks about sexuality with all that baggage they have. Buffoons.

[pop goes the weasel]

5. yeah, blame the Pill

It would make more sense to blame soybeans and certain feminizing compounds (parabens) commonly found in shampoo and other toiletries. Those are more widespread, and excreted by both males and females. Get rid of the the Pill, and you still have the problem of parabens and soy estrogens. Yet, I don't hear the Vatican calling for an end to tofu and cosmetics.

[JerseygirlCT]

12. Yes but eliminating the pill allows them to feel they

have regained some control of women's reproduction - which is apparently incredibly important to them - and always has been.

[yardwork]

38. Give them time on the cosmetics. If it involves blaming women, the Vatican is on board.

I've been reading that the pervasive use of hormone-based pesticides is making males infertile worldwide, but never mind, I guess it must be the pee from women instead.

[Lyric]

6. Wow. Just...wow.

Even if this IS true, it's not like there's some dire under-population emergency in Western nations. If anything, there are too damned many of us. What exactly is the Vatican really worried about? That the brown people are going to outbreed the white folks in the "west?"

Sexism and implied racism, all wrapped up in one neat little package.

:puke:

[book_worm]

7. Now, I'd like to ask the Pope, What has caused all the pedophile priests over the years?

since he knows all.

[Kip Humphrey]

8. OK... But will it be enough to curb the world's burgeoning population explosion?

One can only hope for small favors.

[liberalmuse]

9. The Pill totally demoralizes sperm...

and they start committing mass suicide. I mean, what's the point?

[Gman]

13. Actually, high levels of female hormones in the water supply is not news

It is largely attributable to the pill. Same as high levels of even drugs like Zoloft being in the water supply. That's been known for many years now. There is reason enough to suspect that high female hormone levels in water supplies can cause male infertility.

But that makes a convenient excuse to once again bring up the Church's position on the pill. It's no different than creationists seizing on some scientific revelation to further their unscientific cause.

[HockeyMom]

18. Actually, isn't the PIll supposed to "fool"

a woman's body into thinking she is actually pregnant? Isn't that what all these hormones are for? So, if all these women weren't contracepting and were pregnant they way they are supposed to be according the the anti contraceptive Vatican, wouldn't there STILL be a whole lot of female hormones, from real pregnancies, in the water?

They are actually arguing against what they support.

[yardwork]

39. You're asking the Vatican to embrace logic and science. Non-starter for them.

[HeresyLives]

20. As the item says,

'The article was promptly dismissed by several organisations.

"Once metabolised, the hormones contained in oral contraceptives no longer have any of the characteristic effects of feminine hormones," said Gianbenedetto Melis, vice-president of a contraceptive research association, quoted by the ANSA news agency.

The hormones contained in the pill such as oestrogen "are present everywhere... in plastic, in disinfectants, in meat that we eat," added Flavia Franconi, of the Society of Italian Pharmacology.'

[Radical Activist]

21. um

Representatives from the pharmaceutical and contraceptive industry aren't credible. They will always say their product is safe, just like the tobacco industry.
Yes, the chemicals are everywhere, as the person you quoted points out, and that's a growing problem.

[Fleshdancer]

14. Oh darn. My evil feminazi plot is foiled yet again.

Call off Project DIE SPERM DIE my sisters. The Vatican is on to us. :eyes:

[Mz Pip]

15. Gotta love

those Nobel Prize winning Vatican scientists. :sarcasm:

Why is it just the contraceptives? How about pollution from all those antibiotics, cholesterol meds, blood pressure pills, steroids, etc. etc. that get into the water system?

And is there really some huge outbreak of male infertility? Just because people aren't reproducing like bunnies doesn't mean it's because of male infertility.

[Idealism]

17. Impotence was invented shortly after Pfizer opened their doors...

Sure pal

[SmileyRose]

28. Impotence and infertility are 2 different things.

it IS possible to be impotent and fertile.

[Idealism]

32. No one has told me how to make the sarcasm emote :/

I'm still waiting :(

[anigbrowl]

41. by typing :sarcasm:

That was hard, wasn't it :sarcasm:

[Idealism]

42. Nice.

:sarcasm:

That was like my 3rd time asking! thanks

[quaker bill]

19. The facts are somewhat accurate

The linkage to human male infertility is probably subject to further scientific scrutiny. However, the facts are that traces of antibiotics, anti-depressants, and endocrine disrupting chemicals (mostly estrogen metabolites and analogs) are indeed showing up in our surface waters and drinking water supplies. Studies in a local lake well known for elevated contamination with endocrine disruptors (DDE and others) have provided evidence that these compounds, in sufficient quantity and prolonged exposure, can cause problems of a sexual nature, specifically, malformation of genitalia and sterility in male alligators.

In short, the substances are present in human waste, they are not removed fully by secondary or even tertiary treatment of sewage, trace amounts of various medications are then discharged to surface waters in the treated sewage effluent on a daily basis. A mechanism for migration of these compounds up the food chain has been documented. The impacts of all this remains a subject for further research.

[gollygee]

23. Well, first, there's no shortage of people having babies

so I don't think there's an epidemic. But I have heard that various medications - not just birth control pills - in the water system can cause trouble with both male and female infertility, as well as other health problems for both men and women. I don't understand why they're spinning it as female contraception hurting men when it's a much bigger problem than that. Oh wait, yes I do.

[Locrian]

24. who knows about the vatican stuff, BUT

Male testosterone IS decreasing faster than ever. And penis size is also shinking..... really....

"The average erect penis size has decreased from 6+ inches in the 60's and early 70's to 5+ inches in the 90's and 2000's and it's still decreasing!"

That is if you belive Dr. Willy Wong (no shit, that is his real name).

http://www.maximummaleperformance.com/faqs.html

[Jazzgirl]

25. This has got to be the most ignorant statement I have read

in a long time. :eyes: :wtf: :spank: :wow: :grr:

[Quantess]

26. I'll believe it when I hear it from a scientist.

The vatican needs to stay out of scientific matters and stick to religion, unless they want to encourage astrophysicists to give advice about religion.

[SmileyRose]

29. the pope gives us the answer to controlling the world's population

We should make planned parenthood in charge of the water supply.

Snort

[Democrats_win]

30. Cheney and bush are eunuchs. Blame the water.

[Zenlitened]

31. Vatican gets the science wrong. Shocking, I know!

It's not estrogen that's the problem. It's estrogen-like compounds. Chemicals, in other words, that mimic estrogen.

And where are these estrogen-like compounds commonly found? Why, in plastics. Which, I would guess, are a bit more prevalent in the environment than lady-pee. :eyes:

Remember "Bisphenol A"?

That was the big news story last summer: Plastic water bottles may leach a chemical that disrupts the reproductive system, puberty, etc.

(See: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=ak5jhGm07DXg&refer=home
and
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-04-15-plastic-safety_N.htm
and
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130092108.htm )

But this is not exactly breaking news. The scientificdebate and discussion has been going on for more than a decade. For example:

The great impostors; do chemical companies produce substances that dangerously mimic human hormones?
Newsweek, March 18, 1996
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18093402.html

Endocrinology: Health Effects of Plastic
The Washington Post, April 21, 1997

A chemical found in plastic water bottles, baby food jars, dental sealants and food can linings mimics the female hormone estrogen in certain ways in some rats, lending support to a controversial idea that people are being inadvertently exposed to chemicals that disrupt their hormonal systems.
Link: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-716823.html

And today, in 2009, the Catholic Church is ignoring or distorting science in order to impose its own religion-addled agenda on the world.

Shocking, I know. :crazy:

[Matariki]

34. Like anyone wants a lecture on sex from a 90 year old virgin

and gay marriage is also going to cause the end of the human race because people will become confused about the differences between male and female. yeah, the pointed hatted 90 year old virgin actually said that recently.

[backscatter712]

35. I hear a song coming on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate...

[dflprincess]

36. So now it's sinful for women to urinate?

How about if we promise not to flush?

[soothsayer]

37. i'm thinking he might be right, at least somewhat.

that and the toxic mimics (hormone-like things released by plastics). why do you guys think infertility clinics are such big bizness now? there's a reason for it, no?

[yardwork]

40. As a lesbian, I have no need for contraceptive pills. Does this mean the Vatican applauds me now?

No? Didn't think so.