Extinction of men. Men are dying out as a gender

Scientists are sounding the alarm: men may become extinct as a species, following the example of dinosaurs. Australian professor Janie Graves conducted a rather interesting research. The conclusions obtained as a result of the research shocked the scientific and world community.

According to these findings, earthly men are living out their last millennia, and the time will come when they will become completely extinct and disappear as a species.

It became known what was causing this development of events. According to Professor Graves, calculations show that the number of boys born is steadily declining and no more than 5,000,000 years will pass when the male gender will completely disappear from the planet.

The reason lies in the destructive processes occurring in the Y chromosome, which is responsible for the differences between boys and girls, from the development of the male embryo to the formation of sexual characteristics. Graves states that a given chromosome over the period human development has lost almost 90% of its genes, moreover, destructive processes in it continue to develop.

Repeated studies of the male sex Y chromosome and the female chromosome have established that female X chromosomes contain thousands of healthy genes, while male chromosomes number less than 100. Although at the start, according to the same scientists, they also had thousands of healthy sections.

Among other things, women’s chromosomes have the ability to independently replace damaged areas, but men’s chromosomes do not have this function. This is one of the main reasons for the extinction of the male sex.

However, men have a chance to preserve themselves as individuals. True, we will have to borrow something from some animals, the males of which do not have this chromosome, but, nevertheless, reproduce successfully. Similar reports are published by The Daily Telegraph.

If millions of years ago the Y chromosome had about 1.4 thousand genes at the start, then by the modern period it has only 45 genes left. This information was given by Professor Graves in a lecture to Irish medical students.

According to her calculations, the genes on the Y chromosomes should disappear in about five million years. No one knows what will happen after her complete disappearance. The Y chromosome has a specific gene that is responsible for the development of male sexual characteristics and the production of male hormones.

What will happen when humanity finally loses this chromosome is unknown, the professor notes. A person cannot reproduce without fertilization, like some species of lizards, since a woman must receive certain genes from a man, the specialist points out.

But the encouraging news is that some rodent species lack Y chromosomes and SRY genes. And this does not prevent their species from having completely healthy males. The thought of the possible complete disappearance of men has been troubling pundits for several years now.

Moreover, there is an alternative opinion to Professor Graves's opinion that the man as a species will disappear much sooner. Thus, calculations by Oxford University professor Brian Saikis indicate that men have only 125 thousand years left to exist. Quite a bit, judging on the scale of the Universe.

The Y chromosome is an ancient structure that cannot repair damage caused to it by environment, the specialist points out. Today, 4-5 boys out of every 100 thousand are diagnosed with de La Chapelle syndrome.

They do not have a Y chromosome, and the male gene contains one or both X chromosomes. De La Chapelle syndrome gives its owner an effeminate appearance and makes it impossible to have children.

With faith in the future

Professor Robin Lovell-Bage from the London National Institute medical research believes that scientists have enough time to find a way out and save the male race. Optimistic scientists believe that the male half of humanity will be preserved because the Y chromosome will stop decreasing.

“Research shows that the Y chromosome has become very effective at protecting its important genes,” explains Richard Wilson from Medical Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. In any case, the disappearance of men will not doom the people of the future to extinction.

The development of technology will allow people to reproduce, even if only women remain on the planet. Genetic engineering will help create an embryo from a female cell into which the nucleus of another female donor is implanted. In general, a very interesting prospect is emerging for the male half of the planet!

Just like in the famous Polish film “New Amazons”. The only hope on the fact that men, in the 125,000 years allotted to them, will come up with something and will not allow their species to become extinct like dinosaurs. It's time to think about how to preserve your species and stop wasting time and money on mutual destruction in wars.

6 February 2015, 13:46

No wonder it is sung in a famous song that “for 10 girls, according to statistics, there are 9 guys.” In reality, 5% more men are born, but in infancy the male body is less resilient - hence sad statistics. The instability of the body, apparently, has a direct relationship with male instability in other matters.

Typing the name “endangered species of men” into the keyboard, we were talking directly about those representatives strong half who keeps his word and is responsible for it from beginning to end. So they are just an endangered species, alas and ah.

For some reason, it seems to some that celebrities have much better morals, that they keep their word better, because they are always in the public eye. In reality, the situation is completely different. Just remember the promise of Baskov, who promised to marry Volochkova and even set a wedding date; later, however, they wrote that he still loved Volochkova, but did not want to marry.

It’s difficult to call the next man a celebrity, but it’s still possible to be a public person for a certain period of time. Alexey Kuznetsov, who became the winner of the X-Factor competition, promised to spend the money he won on his father’s treatment, but he never kept his word, but instead married a ballerina.

In 2008, Gazmanov promised to write a book that his fans were so eager for, and three years ago he promised to present it for his anniversary, but there is still no book. And is it really necessary?) Everyone knows Gazmanov is a sailor, and since he’s a sailor, that means he’s a man!)

But it’s not just domestic celebrities and talents who fail to deliver on their promises. I really love DiCaprio as an actor, who certainly won an Oscar, but as a man, I identify him as an unreliable element: -D By the age of 40, he had met more than a dozen beauties, most of whom he introduced to his mother , thereby showing his most serious intentions, but he never married any of them. Your health.

In politics, things are even worse with promises. Poroshenko only recently took over as president of Ukraine, but has already accumulated at least 10 unfulfilled promises. A good start to a career, to be sure!)

Moreover, even for the richest businessmen, numerous billions are not enough to fulfill their promises. Remember how Mikhail Prokhorov promised to launch innovative hybrid Yo-mobiles in 2014, and mass sales will start in 2015. So where are these hybrid Yo-mobiles? Apparently, they are so innovative that they are even invisible)))

I still believe that with regards to businessmen and entrepreneurs, success can be considered deserved only if it is generally recognized. There is no need to speculate on the coolness of your plans and the scale of projects, you do it, and everyone will appreciate it!) Yesterday the final forum of the “Business - Success” award took place, in which more than 200 municipalities and experts in the field took part entrepreneurial activity. The winners of this competition did not announce to the whole country about the launch of an innovative project; they simply did their job well, introduced new ideas without replicating them. These are the real men.

In the “Official of the Year” nomination, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Denis Manturov, won and received a statuette in the form of a jack. At the end of last year, a law on industrial policy was adopted, which was especially important for the country under the pressure of sanctions, so the “official of the year” award can be perceived as the personification of the successful work of the entire government. Denis Manturov is perhaps one of the few politicians today who keeps his word and sees things through to the end. One can only hope that, given his serious position in the government, he will also teach his colleagues to keep promises and be responsible for their words.

I am sure that responsibility is a key factor influencing a man. If he doesn’t feel this responsibility, he won’t have to rely on promises. And this applies not only to relationships, but also to any activity, therefore equally irresponsible behavior gives rise to problems of a very different nature.

Do you think the expression “a man’s word” still has a right to exist?

“Oh, there are no old people left!” - this is how an eighty-year-old resident of a Vologda village explained the metamorphosis that recently happened to her. She suddenly became the head girl. We, he says, gathered for the gathering and thought: since the old men have all died out, and the young men are all stupid or drinkers, we will have to choose an old woman. Here, of course, you can start with a banality - they say, there are still women in Russian villages and so on. But let’s, on the contrary, figure out why there are no normal Russian men left in these villages.

Men have died before

Back in 2001, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation published bleak mortality statistics for the male population of working age. It turned out that men in their prime die in our country 4 times more often than women. In absolute terms of mortality of all ages, men also die more often. The average life expectancy of a Russian man today is 58-59 years - this is 14-15 years less than the average life expectancy Russian woman or male counterpart from developed countries.

However, this was not always the case. Demographic statistics are revealing and fascinating things, even if we're talking about about mortality rates. So, let's start studying.

According to researchers from Moscow State University with whom we were able to communicate, by the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century, we were also 15-20 years behind Europe in terms of life expectancy. The Soviet government, we must give it its due, managed to reduce infant mortality and mortality from infections in the pre-war period. The positive effect has especially affected men, since more boys are born than girls around the world, but they are more likely to die in infancy.

Then there was the Great Patriotic War, with huge male losses that have not yet been fully calculated. By the mid-60s, we had almost caught up with the West in life expectancy: in the Soviet Union, according to statistics, men lived on average 64.5 years, and in Europe and North America - 66 years. Then the number of male deaths from cardiovascular diseases, oncology, various injuries, and we fell behind again. In the “decaying West,” mortality among men of working age was steadily declining, but in our country, with the increase in population, it continued to rise. It’s not easy to talk about the reasons for this phenomenon, and here’s why. Demographers mostly err on the level of development Soviet medicine and the irresponsibility of Soviet men towards their own health. On the other hand, Soviet Union was one of the first to gradually introduce a system of general medical examination of workers, schoolchildren and students, which made it possible to quite effectively cover preventive measures almost the entire population of the country. The West then borrowed this experience of ours and were very pleased with the results.

Probably the entire middle-aged and older male population recalls Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign of 1985-87 with a shudder. But if we talk about male mortality rates, then, oddly enough, it was during these years that it began to decline again, despite the fact that people were often forced to drink surrogates that were dangerous to their health. For example, in 1984 in the USSR, according to the State Statistics Committee, 809,664 men died, in 1985 – 777,425 men, and in 1986 the bar dropped to a record low level in 695,893 deaths were men. True, already in 1987, mortality began to rise again and amounted to 710,256 men.

Interestingly, starting from the post-war years, women in the USSR died every year slightly more than men, which corresponded to global indicators. Happened in 1992 sharp jump male mortality: 911,001 men died in Russia against 896,440 women, the female mortality rate was exceeded for the first time. Moreover, we must take into account that this happened in a country with a population already 100 million people less than it was in the USSR, i.e. in fact, on a national scale the situation has become much worse. In 1993, male mortality reached the level of 1 million deaths and since then has not fallen below this level.

Geography of Russian death

Usually, when voicing numbers of population decline, scientists or government experts talk about the situation as a whole, while at the regional level things happen that can tell us much more about the dry numbers for the country. The main decline in males is observed in mono-ethnic regions where Russians live. Moreover, the Russian Ivan is dying out faster than anyone else in his very ancestral territories. Again, we note that we are talking not only about decrepit old people, but also about able-bodied members of society.

The Russian state began on the lands of Vladimir-Suzdal, Novgorod-Pskov, Tver, Smolensk and Ryazan. Some of these lands, mainly in the northwest, last time deserted at the beginning of the 17th century, in Time of Troubles, and on the rest Russians live continuously for many centuries. Since the 17th century There were no global migration movements in the core of the Russian state. On the contrary, the excess population from these places was actively resettled to Siberia, the south and Central Asia.

Today, all these areas, without exception, are leaders in male decline. In the year of the first All-Russian population census, that is, in 2002, the Pskov region held the palm with an indicator of 23.6 deaths (men and women) per 1000 people. The natural loss rate was 15.2; According to rough estimates, on Pskov land there are 3 deaths for every birth. Next on this mournful list are the Tver and Tula regions (Tula province was generally considered the most Russian in Russia, so the first All-Russian census of 1897 recorded that more than 99% of the population here were Russians) with coefficients of 14.6 and 14.4, i.e. e. for every person born here, a little less than 3 died. Then - Ivanovo, Smolensk, Ryazan and Leningrad regions; Vladimirskaya and Yaroslavskaya are slightly behind them - here, too, there are more than 2 deaths per birth (all data given are taken from the open official report of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation "Main indicators of health and healthcare of the Russian Federation (statistical materials)").

It is typical that areas remote from regional centers—agrarian areas with poorly developed infrastructure—are dying out the fastest. This trend has been recorded in recent years by statistics in Ivanovo, Vologda, and other regions. This means that we may soon have empty, uninhabited lands in the center of Russia. They, one must think, will not be populated, but what to do with such gaps in Russian territories?

Not a single area of ​​the original settlement of the Russian ethnic group on the European Plain is excluded from the general negative trends. The population in rural areas and towns is rapidly declining. At the rate of extinction, cities with small populations (from 8 to 50 thousand people) are catching up with them. Dead Russian towns - the potential future of Russia. Again, we did not come up with this scenario; such a scenario, in particular, is described in the monograph “Deep Russia” by an expert from the Commission for Spatial Development of Privolzhsky federal district Professor Vyacheslav Glazychev. The only exceptions are the largest cities, where the birth rate is lately is growing, but we don’t keep statistics on the national composition of those born, so we can only guess who will come to replace us: Chinese, Caucasians, Vietnamese...

Natural population growth is observed in rich Siberian regions (Tyumen region, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug) and in some republics North Caucasus(Ingushetia, Dagestan). To be fair, it should be noted that not only Russians, but also many indigenous peoples of Russia are dying out at a rapid pace, especially part of the peoples of the Volga region (Mordovians, Mari) and the peoples of the North (Karelians). You probably shouldn’t hope to replace the dead Russian men from among migrants from former republics Union. It has long been established that migrants adapt comparatively worse to new conditions and die faster than the indigenous population. Especially when it comes to men.

Not adapted don't care

What are the reasons for this? Here it’s time to remember our Vologda friend again. The grandmother was forced to become the headman of her dying village, because there are no old people - they died, and young men, in the opinion of the gathering, are worthless. So, it means that there are still male youth in the distant villages of Russia?

The fact of the matter is that there is, but only male. Scientists involved in research in the field of demography have noticed that in remote villages and small towns of Russia, where there is no work or salary, there are fewer and fewer women of working age. No, they don’t exactly die, they simply migrate towards economically developed regions and adapt there. Men turned out to be less socially mobile and prefer to stay with their parents. How does this relate to the mortality rate, you ask? And so, these men are the first candidates to go to the other world ahead of time. They take less care of themselves than others because they see no prospects in their lives. In addition, men themselves, as is known, do not give birth to offspring, which means that we can expect a further excess of the mortality rate over the birth rate in these regions.

According to scientists involved in gender studies, high male mortality is caused by what used to be called vices. Here there is alcoholism, smoking, drug addiction, poor nutrition and unwillingness to take care of their own health - in short, Russian men are irresponsible about their future. And also, experts say, these problems cannot be considered in isolation from the traditional view of male role in our society. Russia has always been predominantly a patriarchal state, where a man had to earn money, feed his family, protect, and so on. Today, many men in Russia are unable to live up to the traditional ideal, and this is not at all conducive to social adaptation in society. This is also why, along with dramatically changing socio-economic conditions in Russia in the early 90s, male mortality immediately increased sharply. Add to this the traditionally low value of life and the cult of strength in all traditional societies, from which comes an irresponsible attitude towards one’s health. After all, every one of us is a hero, and, and don’t go to the doctors...

Russia has taken first place in Europe among the countries with the highest percentage of deaths among men under 65, according to World Bank data released on Friday. According to the World Bank, 43% of men in Russia die before the age of 65.

However, this is progress: in the mid-1990s, men in Russia did not live to see 56.

In Ukraine and Belarus, the mortality rate for men is 40%, Moldova is in fourth place (37%), and Lithuania is in fifth place (36%). Also in the group of countries with the most high performance Male mortality rates included Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Estonia. Among the countries that were not part of the USSR, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania were included here - however, also countries from the Soviet sphere of influence.

The lowest male mortality rates in Europe were recorded in Iceland and Switzerland.

Like cheese in palm oil

These data are not at all surprising, because the reasons for this situation are obvious, says Alla Ivanova, head of the laboratory of health statistics at the Research Institute of Organization and Informatization of Health Care.

“Almost the entire top ten in this anti-rating is occupied by countries of the post-Soviet space. This is understandable: they have common cultural and socio-economic roots. And the consequences of the Soviet economic model affect them all approximately equally - after all, life expectancy cannot be increased quickly through some kind of reforms, this is a factor that accumulates over decades,” she told Reedus.

For all post-Soviet countries, therefore, the reasons for high mortality, which arose back in the USSR, stretch for decades after the disappearance of the Union, like the tail behind the nucleus of a comet.

“According to the WHO classification, there are mainly three such reasons. Overall quality life, which includes the level of the healthcare system, the state of the environment, infrastructure - this is the case. Social and cultural factors, such as the presence of healthy or unhealthy habits and traditions, are two. Hereditary-genetic factors are three,” Ivanova lists.

If the latter factor depends little on the will of people, then the first is completely in the power of the government of a particular country, and the second is completely the free choice of each individual person.

“In Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, there is still a phenomenon characteristic only of former socialist countries: when, relatively speaking, a professor and a general worker live in the same house and buy food in the same “Perekrestok” next to the house. That is, both are forced to eat low quality products, stuffed with palm oil. But at the same time educated person plays sports, goes to the dentist regularly, does not smoke, and does not drink counterfeit vodka. And given the same external situation, the first one lives for decades longer than the second", explains Ivanova.

To paraphrase the famous Bulgakov character, we can say that life expectancy is not in closets, but in heads. However, this in no way explains why men in Russia live so little: do women breathe the same air, eat the same palm oil and drink the same rusty water as their husbands and brothers?

Are you a man or not?

This is very easy to explain, and no WHO can understand it. To do this, you need to live in Russia, says Irina Medvedeva, director of the Institute of Demographic Security.

“For centuries, a man in Russia has become accustomed to feeling like the stronger sex - responsible for the work entrusted to him, for the well-being of his family, for the security of the country as a whole. When such an opportunity disappears for some reason, a man loses the motivation to live as such. He loses his gender identity. It’s not that Russian men consciously led a self-destructive lifestyle; the instinct of self-preservation has not disappeared anywhere. But most of them simply “give up” - because they don’t see in their lives where to fit themselves in the existing conditions,” she told Reedus.

This erosion of motivation began long before the collapse of the USSR, back in the Brezhnev years of “stagnation” (for which many Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians are so nostalgic). Paradoxically, it was the stable, predictable, boring life of decades of “developed socialism” that became the beginning of the degradation of the male population on what was then a sixth of the land.

One of the characters in the novel “Aelita,” Red Army soldier Gusev, described this self-awareness this way: “There is no war now, what should I do with myself? So I decided - I’m flying to Mars!” But the novel was written by Alexei Tolstoy in the mid-1920s, when, it would seem, life could not be called boring.

“For a man to want to live, he needs to feel that life will stop without him. What does he see in reality? There is no decent work, women and the state push him away from family issues, and, thank God, there are no military conflicts now that such a number of soldiers would be needed. That’s why for many Russian men life is something that they don’t particularly cling to,” explains Medvedeva.