Vatican - Male Infertility Caused by Contraceptive Pills

[Kitsune]

Google News

Article:

Contraceptive pill is polluting environment: Vatican newspaper

21 hours ago

VATICAN CITY (AFP) — The contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said Saturday.

The pill "has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature" through female urine, said Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, in the report.

"We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill," he said, without elaborating further.

"We are faced with a clear anti-environmental effect which demands more explanation on the part of the manufacturers," added Castellvi.

The article was promptly dismissed by several organisations.

"Once metabolised, the hormones contained in oral contraceptives no longer have any of the characteristic effects of feminine hormones," said Gianbenedetto Melis, vice-president of a contraceptive research association, quoted by the ANSA news agency.

The hormones contained in the pill such as oestrogen "are present everywhere... in plastic, in disinfectants, in meat that we eat," added Flavia Franconi, of the Society of Italian Pharmacology.

Pope Benedict XVI in October reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's condemnation of artificial birth control.

Contraception "means negating the intimate truth of conjugal love, with which the divine gift (of life) is communicated," the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics wrote on the 40th anniversary of a papal encyclical on the topic.

An encyclical is a letter usually treating some aspect of Catholic doctrine and issued occasionally by the pope.

The landmark document, whose title in English is "On the Regulation of Birth", was published at a time when the development of the Pill was giving new sexual freedom to women across the world.

Millions of Catholics distanced themselves from Rome as a result.

[Mayabird]

They certainly have been obsessed with contraception recently, more than usual.

While I'm here, I guess I'll translate the claims to simpler language: "Ewwww, girl cooties! They're pissing me off!"

[JCady]

Truly pathetic, but I've come to expect nothing but crap out of the present Vatican.

[Kanastrous]

Seems to me that if the Vatican can make pronouncements with regard to the biological sciences, they have no basis for complaint when actual scientists tell them that the Vatican is full of crap.

Stay off scientists' turf, unless you want them to come play, on yours.

[Edi]

It has been established for years that chemicals released from other kinds of things, such as certain plastics, can cause infertility because they have effects similar to estrogen on the body. They're just taking data that is 15 years old and misrepresenting it in order to demonize contraception. This sally is pathetic even for the Vatican.

It's going to be a good day indeed when that bastard Maledictus XVI kicks the bucket. He's nothing but a scared, reactionary old man who is the enemy of progress and equality of any kind. No surprise that he would peddle this shit, though unfortunately he has far more influence than criminals like him should have.

[Mr Bean]

You know the best part? The Vatican still maintains a few scientist on payroll(It used to be one of the only places to get money two hundred years or more ago) And you never can find them on these statements. They have at present according to a quick Google search some eighty members. Sure not all eighty have the authority to speak on human biological reproduction and the various drugs there in. But you figure, they have to at least have one or two guys assigned to that.

*Edit, hell the Vatican has two observatories and apparently were part of that giant virtual radio telescope some months back. Where are they on the life sciences? Oh that's right, this is one against some crazy Bishop(They do have alot of them).

*Edit 2
I managed to fine this With badly translated Italian

And apparently one of the Vatican scientists is contradicting what Mr Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi is saying. But it's not getting reporting outside of Italy. This fellow makes an outragous claim, not even an official Vatican statement, it gets reported, an actual member of the Pope's advisor says the fellow is full of shit, and what gets reported?

Vatican sez pills make you infertile!
Oy. Ok Media, just because your part of a Catholic Organization does not mean you get speaking for the pope rights. He can make his own nut-job statements on his own thank you very much.

[Broomstick]

Sounds like blame the women again to me. Of course, they've been doing that since Adam and Eve...

[Darth Wong]

If the Vatican were correct about environmental hormones being related to male infertility, shouldn't they be going after the agriculture industry? They've been pumping hormones into livestock for decades so they'll grow faster and bigger, and in far greater quantity than the female birth-control pill.

And what about menopause treatment, where they give post-menopausal women hormones? Why does the Vatican feel that contraceptive pills leak hormones into the environment but post-menopausal hormone treatment pills do not?

[FireNexus]

In other news, the Vatican would like to inform us that masturbation causes you to grow hair on your palms.

[Kitsune]

If the Vatican were correct about environmental hormones being related to male infertility, shouldn't they be going after the agriculture industry? They've been pumping hormones into livestock for decades so they'll grow faster and bigger, and in far greater quantity than the female birth-control pill.

And what about menopause treatment, where they give post-menopausal women hormones? Why does the Vatican feel that contraceptive pills leak hormones into the environment but post-menopausal hormone treatment pills do not?

I can give a direct answer to that......because they want human reproduction and culture as the prerogative of the Catholic Church while they don't give a shit about agriculture.

[Valk]

This is not the first time I've read this. I've read something in a dutch paper about hormones from contraceptives affecting us all quite a few years ago, again a few months ago about male (animals) feminising all over the developed world.

Here is one link I found from 2007 with google.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=56623

[Darth Wong]

FundieNetDaily is not a valid news source. It's a religious extremist propaganda outlet.

What special quality do contraceptive hormones have, that post-menopausal hormone treatment hormones do not? Especially since it's the same hormone?

[Valk]

They have definitely interpretted it their way and are claiming to have found a clear connection between this and male infertility, but this is far from being unfounded and might be true. This is a clever bet by the Vatican, if they are later shown to be at least partially correct by a more scientific institution this will certainly boost their influence and credibility.


Some links from credible sources for this:
Soy estrogen reduces sperm count: http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/i ... 3420080723
Chemicals including contraceptives feminise males (12th alinea): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 55688.html - "Female hormones – largely from the contraceptive pills which pass unaltered through sewage treatment – are partly responsible,"

Obviously, science doesn't rush to conclusions as the Vatican does.

[Darth Wong]

The point is that there's a huge cocktail of hormones, antibiotics, and other pollutants entering our environment, and I've never seen anything to indicate that contraceptives are an unusually large source, especially considering the fact that the pump hormones into cows and chickens by the bucketful, compared to what they give to human women.

While I would not be at all surprised to find out that environmental hormones are a potential problem, I would love to know how anyone concludes that we should be zeroing in on contraceptive pills as the largest and henceforth most important source.

[Kanastrous]

If the Vatican were correct about environmental hormones being related to male infertility, shouldn't they be going after the agriculture industry? They've been pumping hormones into livestock for decades so they'll grow faster and bigger, and in far greater quantity than the female birth-control pill.

And what about menopause treatment, where they give post-menopausal women hormones? Why does the Vatican feel that contraceptive pills leak hormones into the environment but post-menopausal hormone treatment pills do not?

Mm hmm, thinking again.

Your stake awaits.

[Patrick Degan]

While I would not be at all surprised to find out that environmental hormones are a potential problem, I would love to know how anyone concludes that we should be zeroing in on contraceptive pills as the largest and henceforth most important source.

Because it's all the fault of those sluts who won't do their ordained duty as baby factories and keep trying to escape God's curse for Eve listening to the talking snake. Isn't it obvious?