The paradox of evolution: efforts to improve aesthetics reduce fertility

Do you take steroids combined with physical exercise to obtain faster and higher results? In that case, you should know that these medications make you less fertile. This is the so-called Mossman-Pacey paradox, by which the more attractive you seek to be other people through physical care, healthy life and strengthening of muscles, less chances are going to have your sperm reach fertilization in order to have children

The prototypical male beauty always looks for athletic bodies, well defined abs, good muscle mass and keep hair. All medicines that facilitate these physical attributes also have adverse side effects, that come to be the opposite of what for the naked eye they work, hence the paradox: you want to be more attractive to other people but nevertheless you run the risk of suffering from erectile dysfunction or infertility, as reported by the 'BBC'.

Some men who came to my office to do fertility tests were very muscular and huge types

Alan Pacey, from the University of Sheffield and James Mossman, from Brown University, discovered this paradox by studying steroids and the effects they could produce on the body. Also because many of the patients who resorted to them for fear of not being fertile shared these physical attributes, what they found very suspicious.

"I noticed that some men came for fertility tests and they were very muscular and huge types," Mossman assured the British media. He was doing a PhD when he started studying the use and abuse of steroids. "They were trying to look really huge, as if it were a new evolved human species. But in an evolutionary sense, they were getting weaker, since they had hardly any sperm in their ejaculation. "

The message is clear: just a little information could save a lot of anguish in the future

Anabolic steroids are used as drugs to improve physical performance and increase muscle growth, imitating the effect of the male hormone testosterone naturally secreted. It is a drug of those who are dedicated to bodybuilding. In some way, they trick the pituitary gland of the brain into thinking that the testicles are going to overload.

"Is not it ironic that men go to the gym to look wonderful, for the most part with the goal of attracting other women, and decreasing their fertility?" Argues Allan Pacey. The glands react by stopping the production of two hormones, the calls FSH and LH, essential when it comes to push the sperm outwards.

There is also a similar pattern in the medications used to treat baldness. This other drug, called finasteride, changes the way in which testosterone is metabolized in the body and limits hair loss, but just as it happens with steroids, it can cause erectile dysfunction and affect fertility. "I would say that it is likely that more anabolic steroid users will become sterile than everyone would believe, approximately 90% ", affirms Pacey to the 'BBC'. "Baldness, on the other hand, is much more unpredictable, but sales of these drugs are skyrocketing and that makes it an increasingly common problem."

Give up having children?

For centuries, the human being has tried perfect your life skills Life expectancy has increased significantly in recent decades and all thanks to technological and medical advances, as well as the maintenance of peace in most areas of the planet. Now, It seems that everything falls on the individual. At the end of the day, being fit is a good way to be healthier and feel more vital.

But be careful, because if you resort to these drugs, that desire to increase your physical potential can take its toll on your reproductive abilities. The measure of success, in evolutionary terms, is to transmit genes to the next generation. "Taking medications based on mere self-conceit could make you more attractive, yes, butIt could also turn you into an evolutionary failure. "

In a way, you may be sacrificing the possibility of having children in pursuit of a good that is supposed to be greater: be more physically attractive. "There are some examples in the natural world in which an animal sacrifices its ability to reproduce", says the scientist." Some species of birds carry out cooperative reproductions in which they renounce having their own offspring in order to raise the descendants of their close relatives. But even this may make sense, since half of their genes are shared with their brothers, so they continue to transmit them even indirectly. "

"Having good muscles and an abdominal 'six pack' may be more attractive to the opposite sex, but it kills your fertility," cautions Mossman. "Even if we use irony to get the message to society, it is a very serious issue that affects many people," Pacey concludes. "There are many young people who keep coming to the clinics very worried. The message is not being broadcast clearly. Just a little information could save you a lot of anguish in the future. "