Most of us know plastic is everywhere. Fewer of us know it's inside us. Fewer still know what it's doing to fertility.

I didn't, until we had Louie Psihoyos on the Our TIES podcast. Louie is the Academy Award-winning director behind The Cove and Racing Extinction, and his latest documentary, The Plastic Detox, is on Netflix now. The film is anchored around a 90-day fertility intervention that genuinely surprised everyone involved, including him.

Here's the part of our conversation that stopped me.

The study at the center of the film

Louie and his team knew they wanted to make a documentary about plastics. However, they didn't just want to share the current state of plastics today from afar, they wanted to get up close and personal with the impact and ideally leave the audience with a call to action or something they could do about it.

So they built the film around a single, concrete question. If six couples with unexplained infertility removed plastics from their lives, would anything change?

"We did a 90 day intervention," Louie told us, "because it takes men 70 days to generate new sperm."

The design was simple. Six couples. Baseline testing of the men's sperm and urine samples from both partners to measure plastic-related chemicals in their bodies. An in-home swap of personal care products, household products, cooking materials, anything they could identify. Midpoint test. Endpoint test at 90 days.

"It's an expensive study, it's a lot of time and we didn't know if it would be a payout," Louie said. "We didn't know if we could really reduce the level of their exposure by doing an intervention."

What the 90 days revealed

First revelation: five of the six men were sub-fertile or infertile. None of them knew it.

"Because a man, they have an ejaculation," Louie said, "they go, oh, I've got sperm, it must be the female's problem. Well, it was the men. At least half of it, the problem was the men."

Second revelation: the intervention worked.

"With this one intervention that they did by keeping these products out of their life," Louie said, "they got their levels down to nearly undetectable, their sperm rate shot up."

The real ending: pregnancies. Following the intervention, three of the six couples were able to conceive.

"Like I couldn't expect anything better," Louie told us. "The first pregnancy I was crying, and then there was a second one, and a third one. I was like, holy, can I swear? Holy f**k. I can't believe this is happening."

Why plastic specifically

Plastics contain endocrine disruptors, meaning they interact with the body's hormonal system. The two main categories are phthalates and bisphenols (including BPA). Phthalates are what stabilizes scent, so they show up in fragrances, deodorants, cleaning supplies, a lot of personal care. BPA and its chemical cousins harden plastic. They line the inside of most aluminum cans.

"Unlike other toxins where the dose is the poison," Louie explained, "your endocrine system mostly needs a few molecules to change it."

That's the thing that separates this from most toxin conversations. You don't have to be exposed to a lot for it to affect you.

The broader number

The Plastic Detox's scientific backbone is the work of Dr. Shanna Swan, the 89-year-old epidemiologist whose research on sperm count decline has been ringing alarm bells for 25 years. Her data shows sperm counts dropping at a rate that's accelerated from 1% per year to 2.66% per year.

Dr. Swan's projection, and one that the film leans on, is that by 2045, most couples will need to use IVF to get pregnant. This is a projection, not a foregone conclusion. Other reproductive epidemiologists have critiqued specific aspects of the underlying research. What's broadly agreed upon is the direction of the trend. The specific rate and timeline remain areas of scientific discussion.

Louie has spent decades making films about existential environmental problems. This one, he told us, is the one he thinks is actually winnable, because the intervention is something individuals can start on any given afternoon.

What this means for a man thinking about fatherhood

Not every man has the time or capacity to do a full home audit. That's fine. Louie was pragmatic about this.

"I want people to find a place where they can get these materials," he said. The goal isn't zero plastic. The goal is reducing how much ends up in your body. Three of the most practical entry points from our conversation:

• Don't heat food in plastic. Microwaving plastic containers, drinking hot liquid from plastic, leaving plastic water bottles in a hot car. Heat and plastic is the combination that drives the most migration of chemicals into what you consume.

• Scented products are where phthalates live. Fragrances, deodorants, air fresheners, scented cleaning supplies, dryer sheets. Unscented or naturally-scented alternatives exist for most of these.

• Aluminum cans have BPA linings. Canned food and canned beverages are a bigger source than most people realize. Fresh and frozen are cleaner for the same nutritional content.

The takeaway

The 90-day study in The Plastic Detox is one of those rare data points where the intervention is fully within an individual's control. You don't need a prescription to reduce plastic exposure. You don't need insurance approval. For men preparing for fatherhood, the timeline overlaps exactly with the sperm generation cycle that matters most.*

The Plastic Detox is streaming on Netflix now. If this conversation moved you, the film goes much deeper than we could here, and it's definitely worth the watch.

We've got more conversations like this one coming. If you want them in your inbox, subscribe to the TIES newsletter. More real answers from real experts, built the hard way, on purpose.

*This post reflects conversations from the Our TIES podcast and is intended for general informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, a diagnosis, or a treatment recommendation, and it should not be used as a substitute for professional medical guidance. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider about any health condition, including questions related to fertility. Quotes from Louie Psihoyos have been lightly edited for readability. The meaning remains the same.  

Community notes

• Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with the body's hormonal system. They can affect reproduction, metabolism, immune function, and development. Phthalates and bisphenols (including BPA) are two of the most widely studied.

• The 90-day intervention featured in The Plastic Detox included six couples with previously unexplained infertility. Five of the six men were sub-fertile or infertile at baseline and were not previously aware. As the film depicts, the intervention resulted in measurable reductions in phthalate and BPA levels. Following the intervention, three of the six couples were able to conceive. This is a documentary-based intervention, not a peer-reviewed randomized trial. The scientific backbone of the film draws on decades of peer-reviewed research by Dr. Shanna Swan and others.

• The projection that most couples will need IVF by 2045 is based on Dr. Shanna Swan's epidemiological research on declining sperm counts. Her specific projections have been influential and also actively debated in the reproductive epidemiology community. The direction of the trend is broadly agreed upon; the rate and specific projections are where active discussion continues.

• The sperm generation cycle of approximately 70 days is well established in the reproductive biology literature. Louie's reference to 70 days and TIES's reference to "70 to 90 days" both fall within the range cited by clinicians and researchers; individual variation exists.

• This post is about the specific intervention and findings from The Plastic Detox. It is not a comprehensive guide to plastic exposure reduction or endocrine disruption. For deeper reading, The Plastic Detox is streaming on Netflix, and Dr. Shanna Swan's book Count Down covers the broader research in detail.