Is it possible to create human oocytes from skin cells in a dish?

[wolram]

This seems to be a worrying survey, Is western man going to die out?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170726110954.htmSignificant ongoing decline in sperm counts of Western men
Date:
July 26, 2017
Source:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Summary:
A rigorous and comprehensive meta-analysis of data collected between 1973 and 2011 finds that among men from Western countries, sperm concentration declined by more than 50 percent, with no evidence of a 'leveling off' in recent years. These findings strongly suggest a significant decline in male reproductive health that has serious implications beyond fertility and reproduction, given recent evidence linking poor semen quality with higher risk of hospitalization and death.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Reproductive technologies (e.g. IVF) have advanced to the point where this is not a big problem. If anything, it is a beneficial adaptation that helps to reduce unplanned pregnancies.

Also, natural reproduction will be obsolete in a few decades once we work out all of the kinks in gene editing embryos. :p

 

[BillTre]

Producing http://menfertility.org/worlds-first-successful-in-vitro-human-artificial-sperm-production-for-male-infertility/ is another thing that might be useful for dealing with these kinds of problems in a few years.
I wanted to do this with fish about 15 years ago. The technology/knowledge was not available then.

Male infertility contrary to many science fiction scenarios where reproductive women are rare and result in weird social/political things happening.

I am guessing a shortage of fertile men would not require such restrictive controls to still get them involved in (possibly controlled) reproductive efforts.
Sperm donation is easy, surrogates or forced insemination is not.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

An even bigger advance with broad social implications would be the ability to produce oocytes in culture. One could imagine taking skin cells, reprogramming them into https://stemcells.nih.gov/info/Regenerative_Medicine/2006Chapter10.htm, then differentiating those stem cells into oocytes that could be used for IVF. It would reduce the need for invasive surgeries for egg donation and could potentially allow women to avoid pressures of their "biological clock" (i.e. increased risk of chromosomal defects with increasing age of the mother). Although such technology is still far away, there are advances being made toward this goal:
http://www.pnas.org/content/113/32/9021
https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v539/n7628/full/nature20104.html
http://www.nature.com/news/mouse-eggs-made-from-skin-cells-in-a-dish-1.20817