The problem with the word "new" is that it depends on which abstraction layer you look at.
for example, all programming languages are turing machines under the hood so you could say that learning a new programming language doesn't bring any novelty to you because it feels like the same end result.
also lisp did most of the cool things and now we are just reinventing the wheel with other languages
From a purely observation perspective, pornography consumption has increased dramatically at the same time as falling fertility. Even if a mechanism isn't obvious, it at least seems like there is a possibility of a connection.
Studies have indicated that long-term pornography use correlates with erectile dysfunction and loss of interest in sexual relationships. It's not hard to imagine that fertility might be related to these other aspects of reproductive health. Unfortunately few long-term studies seem to focus on fertility specifically.
Short term studies on the influence of porn find that novel sexual stimulus seems to increase sperm quality while it attenuates in response to repeated exposure to the same stimulus. This is bad news for real life humans who cannot change as rapidly or dramatically as one can switch videos.
The lower cost of sexual release in porn leading to less motivation to pursue relationships with the opposite sex, an activity which in our current state of reproductive preferences, moral values and technology is strongly correlated with instances of human reproduction.
P.S. The use of "fertility" to describe men is weird and seems recent. Fertility is passive and receptive and thus better fits women (hence the use in agriculture to describe the earth). Virility is a better term because it is active. Some people seem to falsely claim that it doesn't refer to procreative or generative power, but it does as this entry in Etymology Online[0] shows (emphasis mine):
"period of manhood," 1580s, from French virilité, from Latin virilitatem (nominative virilitas) "manhood," from virilis "of a man, manly, worthy of a man," from vir "a man, a hero," from PIE root wi-ro- "man." Meaning "power of procreation, capacity for sexua[l] intercourse" is from 1590s; sense of "manly strength" is recorded from c. 1600.
There's not much power to procreate if you have a low sperm count.
I think "lack of fertility" to design low sperm count/inviable spermatozoids is accurate. Lack of virility would be impossibility to use your own penis for different reasons. 10-8 year ago i knew a trans who was fertile and could give sperm to her lesbian friends, but lacked virility.
The female counterpart of virility should be femininity.
DNA and knowledge of the specific of procreation is probably as recent as the use of fertility.
Wanted to comment about obesity but i guess most people said what i wanted to say, so i'm rebounding on a tangent for my own self-esteem, sorry.
But If I was a researcher, I would stay clear of using a term that could be understood as some kind of endorsement of toxic masculinity, heteronormativity or whatever.
Better to use the slightly less accurate term, overloading its original meaning with a new one, and avoid being the subject of a witch hunt.
