The Straight Dope 01/28/2005

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 01/28/2005

Dear Cecil:

While flipping around cable recently, I came across a show discussing
human fertility. Among its claims was that male fertility rates (sperm
counts) have declined by 50 percent in the past 30 years and continue to
decline. They suggested one possible reason for this is that as much as
80 percent of hormones in female contraceptives get flushed into toilets
and end up in our drinking water. Is this true? Will fertile males one
day be an endangered species? Should I start saving up my sperm to
auction off to the highest bidder? --Louis M. Jiggretts, Seattle

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Cecil replies:

What you do with your sperm is not something the rest of us need to
know, Louis. Fact is, people in the third world are reproducing just
fine--it's the developed world that may have reason to worry. Birthrates
in the industrialized countries have plunged to the point that the
population of some nations (though not the U.S.) will start falling over
the next few decades--Russia's already is. Nobody knows if that's just
because people don't want a lot of kids or if more insidious forces are
at work, and if the latter what they are. Female hormones in the
environment is one candidate, but lots of others have been suggested.
For example, you might want to be careful with that laptop--according to
one study, it could be cooking your cojones.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050128.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC #1 - 01/15/1988

Dear Straight Dope:

I knew a woman who would walk through campus Hula Hooping, all the while
reading a physics textbook. Ever since then I've been wondering: does
that little ball inside the Hula Hoop do more than provide sound
effects? Is it necessary to keep the Hula Hoop going? -- Lisa Smith,
Washington, D.C. 

Cecil replies:  

You can't sleep, Lisa kid, try Sominex. You want to explore the frontiers of
knowledge, keep reading.  We called up the Wham-O company, maker of the
Hula Hoop (as well as the Frisbee and the Super Ball), hoping for a little 
technical insight. Everybody we talked to said the little ball--actually three
or four steel BBs--was just for sound effects. We learned that the original 
Hula
Hoop, which Cecil had known and loved as a child, was silent. But later
generations, their senses dulled by constant TV viewing, required more
sonic razzle-dazzle. The first noisy hoops, called Shoop Shoop Hula
Hoops, had pieces of walnut shell sliding around inside. Later this gave
way to the BBs now found in all hoops.  

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_189.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC #2 - 06/29/1984

Dear Cecil: 

This will no doubt come as one of your more bizarre queries, but why not
a little levity in this world of woe? For sixteen years, after every
orgasm, whether self-caused or by a lover, whether I was happy or sad,
and in 30 different countries, I sneeze, often violently and repeatedly.
Have you ever heard of such a phenomenon before? I am a 36-year-old
female journalist, straight, with no known allergies. Is it simply a
relaxation of tension or am I allergic to sex? It's not particularly
annoying to myself or others, but it intrigues me. It doesn't matter if
the sex is oral or more conventional, the man bald or hairy, the
location a beach, an all-satin bed, or a forest. I await your answer
with bated ... achoo! --C. G., Washington, D.C.

Dear C.:  

Orgasms in 30 different countries, huh? I'm impressed, sweetie--some of 
this column's hapless correspondents have a tough time getting it on in one.
But we can compare notes later. As far as postcoital sneezing goes, you have
to realize that in sex, "idiosyncratic reactions are myriad," as one
researcher puts it. Having scoured the literature (and in addition
having polled the Straight Dope production department, whose sexual
eccentricities are legendary), I have compiled the following partial
inventory of unusual physiological reactions to sex:  

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_191.html

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