Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr used a White House press event on Thursday to claim that American teenagers now have 50 per cent less sperm and testosterone than 65-year-old men. He was speaking alongside President Donald Trump at a gathering to promote a new deal offering discount fertility drugs.
Kennedy said the US fertility rate had fallen from 3.5 per cent during his uncle's presidency to 1.6 per cent today, describing it as a national security threat. He blamed exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which he said the president's 'Make America Healthy Again' agenda would address.
Medical experts have contradicted the claim, noting that sperm counts typically decline with age, meaning a teenager would normally have a higher count than a man in his late sixties. Dr Scott Lundy, a reproductive urologist at the Cleveland Clinic, called the issue "contentious", with studies on both sides.
An HHS spokesman cited two papers from 2017 and 2022 to support Kennedy, saying "a growing body of peer-reviewed research shows significant declines" and that ignoring the trend was irresponsible. Kennedy made a similar remark in April, telling Fox News that teenage testosterone levels had dropped 50 per cent from historic levels.
At the same event, Medicare administrator Dr Mehmet Oz predicted there would be "a lot of Trump babies" as a result of IVF reforms, saying America had been "under-babied". Virility remains a major topic in the manosphere, where wellness influencers often discuss its supposed decline.
