The Disappearing Male

“We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment in which our children and our children’s children are the experimental subjects.” Dr. Herbert Needleman. The Disappearing Male is about one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system. The last few decades have seen steady and dramatic increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from genital deformities, low sperm count, sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer. At the same time, boys are now far more at risk of suffering from ADHD, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia.

The Disappearing Male takes a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals that are ubiquitous in our world. Found in everything from shampoo, sunglasses, meat and dairy products, carpet, cosmetics and baby bottles, they are called “hormone mimicking” or “endocrine disrupting” chemicals and they may be starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development.

“The Disappearing Male” gives an educational glimpse into why environmental chemicals, and particularly the gender-bending kind, are so detrimental to boys.Endocrine-disrupting environmental chemicals are interfering with reproductive development, causing male birth defects to increase along with infertility rates. Male sperm counts have been on the decline and males of all species are becoming more feminized, likely due to rising chemical exposures. In one community close to a slew of chemical plants, two girls are born for every boy, raising concerns about the future of the human species.