ReviewLife (Basel, Switzerland)2024
The Global Decline in Human Fertility: The Post-Transition Trap Hypothesis.
Review in Life (Basel, Switzerland), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Screens and society: how media narratives influence fertility and reshape childbearing choices; a systematic review.BMC women's health · 2025Pooled it
- Temporal trends and future projections of fertility and birth rates in Georgia: a retrospective observational study.BMJ open · 2026Observational
- Biological Consequences of Declining Human Fertility.Public health challenges · 2026Article
- Converging fertility trajectories across developed countries, 2010-2020: implications for public health policy.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Household wealth and timing of first birth among highly educated women in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from survey-adjusted survival analysis.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2026Article
- Atrazine Induces Reproductive Toxicity in anBiomedicines · 2025Article
- Mechanisms and applications of mesenchymal stem cell exosomes in enhancing fertility.Stem cell research & therapy · 2025Review
- From gut to gamete: how the microbiome influences fertility and preconception health.Microbiome · 2025Review
- The Fertility Market in Latin America and Brazil: A Narrative Review of Trends and Key Players.JBRA assisted reproduction · 2025Review
- Development of an improved medium for the preservation of human spermatozoa.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2025Article
- Paternal age, de novo mutations, and offspring health? New directions for an ageing problem.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2024Review
- Clinical Trends and Novel Research Insights into Testicular and Penile Disorders and Infertility.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Higher oxidative balance score is associated with lower female infertility: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Over the past half a century many countries have witnessed a rapid fall in total fertility rates, particularly in the world's most advanced economies including the industrial powerhouses of Eastern Asia and Europe. Such nations have now passed through the first and second demographic transitions and are currently exhibiting fertility rates well below the replacement threshold of 2.1, with no sign of recovery. This paper examines the factors responsible for driving these demographic transitions and considers their impact on both fertility and fecundity (our fundamental capacity to reproduce). I argue that because the first demographic transition was extremely rapid and largely driven by socioeconomic factors, it has had no lasting impact on the genetic/epigenetic underpinnings of human fecundity. However, the second demographic transition will be different. A series of conditions associated with low fertility societies, including relaxed selection pressure for high-fertility genotypes, the indiscriminate use of assisted reproductive technologies to treat human infertility, and environmental contamination with reproductive toxicants, may impact our genetic constitution in ways that compromise the future fecundity of our species. Since any fundamental change in the genetic foundations of human reproduction will be difficult to reverse, we should actively pursue methods to monitor human fecundity, as sub-replacement fertility levels become established across the globe.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.