October 2, 2012

If you are struggling with male infertility you may have been tempted by advertisements for fertility supplements. But do they really work? It’s important to look at the ingredients of each male fertility supplement you are considering to see if their claims are backed up by science.

While evidence is still limited, some fertility supplements, including those below, have shown promise for improving sperm count or sperm motility.

by Leigh Ann Woodruff, September 19, 2012

For healthy sperm, men should increase their intake of antioxidants, particularly if they are older or have fertility issues. Two recent studies have found that increased antioxidant intake is linked to improved sperm quality.

"Americans spend billions of dollars every year on vitamins and other supplements. Evidence of the benefit is lacking. The problem is that proving the efficacy of one type of treatment for multiple diseases with multiple causes is nearly impossible," says Joe Massey, M.D., a founder of Servy Massey Fertility Institute in Atlanta, GA. "In male infertility, the situation is parallel. In a modern society, dietary deficiency is unlikely to have caused male infertility. With this understanding, in cases of male subfertility, there is new evidence that there is some improvement in DNA strand breaks by high consumption of certain vitamins or by supplementation at levels difficult to reach with food."

Older Men and Sperm Quality

These days more older men over 35 are becoming fathers, and as men age, their sperm are likely to have more sperm DNA fragmentation. chromosomal rearrangements and DNA strand damage. In addition, studies have found that the age of the father when a baby is conceived does matter with regard to passing on gene mutations.

Now, researchers have found that improving one's diet may be a way to protect against some of this damage. in a study led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and reported in the journal Fertility and Sterility, researchers analyzed 80 healthy male volunteers between 22 and 80 years of age. They found that men older than 44 who consumed the most vitamin C had 20 percent less sperm DNA damage compared to men older than 44 who consumed the least vitamin C. They found the same was true for vitamin E, zinc and folate. However, they did not see the same effects in younger men — higher intake of micronutrients didn’t improve their sperm DNA.

by Leigh Ann Woodruff, September 6, 2012

It seems there may be a "fertility awareness gap" among women, according to Australian researchers. A new survey, published in the International Journal of Advanced Nursing, finds that the majority of women don't know when they are fertile and when they are most likely to get pregnant.

Researchers at Monash University surveyed 204 infertile women seeking fertility assistance at two fertility clinics in Melbourne. Only 13 percent could correctly identify which specific days of their menstrual cycle that they were fertile and could become pregnant; however 68 percent of the women believed they had accurately timed intercourse within the fertile days of their menstrual cycle before seeking help from a fertility doctor.

So, the majority of the women seeking fertility treatment had insufficient knowledge of when to time sex to optimize natural conception. The researchers ay that this kind of poor fertility awareness could be a contributing to infertility.

by Leigh Ann Woodruff, August 16, 2012

When trying to get pregnant, it may be helpful for men to go a little (wal)nuts for their … ahem … well, for their "nuts."

Researchers at the UCLA School of Nursing have found that the nutrient-rich walnut may improve men's fertility. Eating about two handfuls of walnuts a day improved sperm health in their study

"Women are not the only ones who should be paying attention to what they eat when they are trying to get pregnant," says Wendie Robbins, a professor at the UCLA School of Nursing and UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health and lead author of the study. "This study shows that what men eat is important too."

"We’ve known for a long time that increased oxidative stress, measured in the laboratory as ‘Reactive Oxidative Species' or ‘ROS’ and more recently related to increased rates of DNA fragmentation, has an adverse effect on sperm function and sperm fertilizing capacity," says George M. Grunert, M.D., medical director of Fertility Specialists of Houston. "Reducing ROS and DNA fragmentation improves fertility. A number of anti-inflammatories and antioxidants have been found to be of value, specifically vitamins C, D and E and omega-3 fatty acids. Pharmacologic treatments have focused on non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. As this article points out, walnuts may be another good, natural source of antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids."

The Nut Study

The study — "Walnuts Improve Semen Quality in Men Consuming a Western-Style Diet: Randomized Control Dietary Intervention Trial" — has been published in the journal Biology of Reproduction. The study set out to look at the effects of a plant source of omega-3 on sperm and involved 117 men between the ages of 21 and 35. The researchers divided the men into two groups. One group added 75 grams (around 2.5 ounces) of whole-shelled walnuts to their diet daily, and the other group continued their usual diet, but they avoided eating tree nuts.

Both groups of men ate a typical Western-style diet, but the researchers found significant improvements in sperm parameters in the men who ate the walnuts. The men who ate no tree nuts had no change in their sperm.