Most couples of normal childbearing age who live together and have a normal sex life can conceive in about six months. Generally, about 80% of the couples can conceive in the first year after marriage, and 10% more in the second year. At present, most scholars in China believe that if a couple has a history of sex without contraception for more than 2 years after marriage and fails to conceive, it is called infertility. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines infertility as a couple having normal sexual intercourse for one year after marriage without contraceptive measures and not conceiving; infertility due to male causes is called male infertility. The current incidence of infertility is about 15%, of which the female factor alone is about 50%, the male factor alone is about 30%, and the male and female together are about 20%. Clinically, male infertility is divided into two categories: sexual dysfunction and normal sexual function, the latter of which can be further divided into azoospermia, oligospermia, weak spermia, sperm incompetence and sperm count normal infertility based on semen analysis results. The current situation of male infertility Some statistics show that in 1960 only 8% of men came to consult because of infertility, but nowadays it is more than 40%. the ratio of male to female infertility patients in the 70s was 3 to 7, and in the 90s this ratio has risen to nearly 1 to 1. according to WHO estimates, the number of infertility patients worldwide is as high as 60 to 80 million, and the rate of increase is 2 million infertile couples every year. Our scientists’ findings also show that men now suffer from infertility has increased rapidly in the past one or two decades, with an average of one infertility per 8 couples, and the more industrialized the region, the faster the rate of decline in sperm quality. China’s men with infertility, about 6% to 10% in rural areas, 12% to 15% in towns and cities, in industrialized, densely populated cities are up to 17% or more. Scientists predict that it may pose an unpredictable danger to the survival of mankind. Over the past half century, there has been a significant decline in the quantity and quality of human sperm worldwide. Danish scientist Carlsen found, after years of investigation and a synthesis of studies from many countries around the world, that the average sperm density of human male semen had dropped from 113 million/ml in 1940 to 66 million/ml in 1990, and the average volume of semen per ejaculation had dropped from 3.4 ml down to 2.7 ml. In the past 60 years, the sperm density of men in the world has decreased by 50% and the semen volume has also decreased by nearly 25%. Studies by Chinese scholars have also confirmed that the semen quality of Chinese adult men is declining year by year. The Institute of Science and Technology of the National Population and Family Planning Commission has studied the sperm analysis data of 11,726 people from 39 cities and counties, including Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, published between 1981 and 1996, and found that the semen quality of Chinese men is declining at a rate of 1% per year, and the number of sperm decreased by 30%. The above data shows that the quality of human semen is significantly declining worldwide, and reproductive medicine experts point out that “men are facing their own life and death crisis”. This conclusion is not alarming. Male fertility is to a certain extent closely related to semen quality, and the clinical significance of declining semen quality may be reflected in an overall decline in male fertility. From the clinical point of view in the last two years, infertility cases due to male factors accounted for one-third of the cases, and male oligospermia disease has a rising trend year by year. At the same time, the quality of sperm is also quietly declining, the proportion of malformed, poor quality sperm is increasing, its vitality, penetration, the rate of conception is declining, so that the proportion of male infertility is also increasing year by year. 2, the impact of environmental factors Male reproductive activity is a complex series of activities including sperm occurrence, maturation, emission, etc., so the causes of male infertility are very many, and many factors together lead to male infertility. Among them, environmental degradation is likely to be the main factor contributing to the decline in semen quality. The damage to reproductive health caused by an adverse environment involves every stage of the reproductive process and is extremely harmful to the health of the next generation. In turn, environmental factors include a wide range of components and a relatively complex biological chain of relationships. Environmental factors include: ① Physical factors. Such as light, temperature and radiation; ② chemical factors. Including natural and man-made, such as automobile, tractor exhaust and industrial waste gas pollution of the atmosphere, pesticides on air pollution, pesticides, fertilizers on food, vegetable pollution, industrial wastewater pollution of drinking water, detergents, cosmetics and a variety of occupational harmful substances in direct contact; ③ biological factors. Including viruses and microorganisms; ④ Behavioral factors. Such as tension and drug use; ⑤ social factors. Including nutrition, hygiene, habits, education and occupation, etc. These factors often overlap and may be influenced by multiple factors at the same time. In recent years, the concept of “environmental hormones” has been proposed. Hormones are not new to us. From the perspective of human physiology, hormones are trace substances secreted by the human endocrine organs that have special physiological functions for the human body. For example, sex hormones stimulate growth and development and the maturation of the reproductive system. So what are “environmental hormones”? Environmental hormones refer to the chemical substances present in the environment that can affect the endocrine function of the human body like hormones, also known as environmental hormones, or “type III damage”. Environmental hormones, regardless of the way they enter the human body, can be harmful to human health, and even if they are ingested in small amounts, they can cause endocrine imbalance in the body. Environmental hormones are strictly defined by the World Health Organization as “exogenous chemicals or mixtures that cause changes in endocrine function and consequently have harmful effects on individuals and their offspring or groups (some of which are subgroups). Scientific studies have confirmed that environmental hormones do not directly bring abnormal effects on human body and other organisms as harmful substances, but act in a hormone-like manner on human body or other organisms to disrupt the original endocrine functions in the organism. It is believed that with the rapid development of modern industry, the environmental pollution caused by environmental hormones is increasing significantly. Environmental hormones are compounds in the environment that are active and can have harmful effects on the male reproductive system. Researchers have identified nearly 300 environmental hormone chemicals that may affect sperm quality, with about 1,500 suspected substances. And all of these substances are in close contact with human daily life. For example, plastic products, disposable foam products, pesticides, feed and food additives, detergents, cosmetics, synthetic hormones, pesticides, herbicides, which are widely found in food, everyday products, vegetables, offshore fish, grains, air, drinking water, and textiles. Most of them have chemical structures similar to estrogen molecules, such as DDT, PCBs and polycarbonate. They are released into the environment, causing pollution to the atmosphere, water and soil, and then enter the human body through diet and breathing, producing hormone-like effects. The main hazards are: ① due to the presence of a large number of environmental hormone substances in food and drinking water, resulting in a reduction in men’s sperm, low sperm motility, rising sperm deformities, male degeneration, and even a high incidence of male infertility; ② teratogenic. Scientific research has found that women of childbearing age long-term pollution by environmental hormones will greatly increase the likelihood of fetal malformations, resulting in local deformities of the five senses, limbs or sexual organs of the fetus; ③ interference and reduce the immune function of the human body, and can lead to neurological dysfunction, mental retardation, and in serious cases, certain cancers. The results of a study by the Japanese Environmental Protection Research Institute also showed that environmental hormone pollution caused 70% of chickens raised to suffer from eye disease, 30% from cough, and 15% from asthma and bronchitis [3]. The physiological process of spermatogenesis is regulated by the endocrine process of hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular hormones, and because the chemical structure of environmental hormones is similar to that of human sex hormones, although the content of environmental hormones is minimal, their long-term accumulative effect will interfere with the endocrine regulation of the testes in a hormone-like manner when they reach a certain concentration, causing changes in hormone levels, affecting testicular spermatogenesis and development, leading to abnormal semen quality This will affect testicular sperm production and development, leading to abnormal semen quality and abnormal sperm morphology and function, thus reducing fertility. The harm of environmental hormones is not only the physiological factor of endocrine disorder, but also the molecular biological mechanism triggered by free radicals. Domestic and foreign experts in free radical biology point out that the damage caused by environmental hormones is often related to the attacking effect of free radicals. In the case of sperm, on the one hand, in order to maintain the normal function of human sperm, free radicals are indispensable; on the other hand, if there are too many free radicals, it will cause damage to sperm. The pollution of environmental hormones is the culprit of the increase of free radicals in human body. Experimental studies have found that sperm are particularly sensitive to the peroxidation of reactive oxygen radicals, such as superoxide anions, which can reduce the mobility and vitality of sperm membranes, causing irreversible damage to the integrity, motility and other functions of sperm, which in turn leads to the death of sperm. This has become an important etiology of male infertility [4]. Estrogenic compounds are the main components of environmental hormones. They have significant effects on the male reproductive system, including affecting androgen levels, triggering structural changes in testicular tissues, causing testicular cancer, reducing the number of sperm in semen, causing gynecomastia, and leading to endocrine disorders. Short-term use of estrogen-containing drugs by men does not significantly affect the reproductive system, but long-term exposure to items containing estrogen in our lives can cause greater harm to reproductive health. In our daily life, there are some foods that inappropriately incorporate hormone-like substances. Commonly used pesticides and plastic products have the same chemical structure as estrogen. Everyday detergents and stain removers, the degradation products after use, also have estrogenic effects. In order to make cattle and sheep grow more meat and produce more milk, people inject a lot of estrogen into these livestock; in order to make the fish and shrimp in ponds grow quickly, farmers add hormone feeds that “promote growth”; in order to promote vegetables, fruits and melons to enter the market in advance, vegetable farmers and fruit farmers do not hesitate to spray or inject a certain concentration of ethylene glycol, abscisic acid Such as “catalyst”. There are also some men who use women’s cosmetics for skin care, some of these cosmetics developed specifically for women contain certain estrogen, long-term use can slowly change the endocrine function, damage to male reproductive health, resulting in hypogonadism. British scientists found many years ago that the phenomenon of partial feminization of male fish living in waters containing municipal sewage, a phenomenon that has long troubled people. This was later found to be related to the excessive amount of human estrogen in municipal sewage. The British Environmental Protection Agency reported in 1996 that British scientists studied fish and water quality living in the waters of East London and found that these waters contained three active hormones, two of which are natural human estrogens and one of which is an artificial estrogen contained in birth control pills. It can lead to biological endocrine imbalance even in very small amounts, with genital malformations and reduced sperm count. The above situation has caused alarm and concern among scientists. However, it will take a process to really solve the harm of environmental hormones to male sperm and the threat to human reproduction and survival. Therefore, experts urge that while strengthening environmental protection, the public is advised to take active precautions to stay away from environmental hormones. To minimize the use of plastic containers for food and drink; as far as possible, do not use bags containing chlorine (such as polyvinyl chloride); strictly prevent the mixing of plastic waste into the incineration of waste; minimize the use of chemical dry cleaning; try not to use leaded gasoline. To properly eat some health products with antioxidant effect, eat more food with free radical scavenging function, such as shiitake mushrooms, yams, ginkgo, dates, hawthorn, royal jelly, ginger, gibberellic acid, wheat rice, beans, leeks, green peppers and eggplant, etc.. These foods all contain antioxidant enzymes such as catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD), which can promptly remove excess free radicals from the body. Sperm quality is a major issue in human survival and reproduction, for these factors, we should be highly alert, timely attention and avoid, but also to call on all forces of society to improve our living environment.