The Male Factor

We have the culmination of 2 events in September, Father’s Day (1^st Sept) and Fertility Awareness Week (2-8^th Sept) so it seems like the perfect time to talk about optimising male fertility.


Interesting fact - For 30% of infertile couples, infertility is the result of the male factor alone and in 20% it is a combination of male and female factors. In fact, approximately 40% of all couples undergoing IVF are doing so because of male fertility issues.
Many men, although not infertile, may be subfertile due to factors that can affect sperm quantity and quality:

• Environmental & Occupational Factors:
• air, water & food pollution, toxic chemicals (e.g. fertilisers and pesticides), heavy metals, excessive heat, WIFI and electromagnetic exposure and radiation
• Lifestyle factors:
• smoking, alcohol, caffeine, recreational drugs, prescription medications (e.g. blood pressure medication, steroids, antidepressants, anti-psychotics, antibiotics, gout medications), poor diet, nutritional deficiencies , saunas/spas
• Age
• associated with modest decreases in sperm quality.
• Emotional Stress
• Disease and ill health 
• e.g. Genitourinary and systemic infections, diabetes
• Overweight & Obesity
• up to 50% higher rate of sub-fertility compared to ideal weight men.
• Hormonal Factors

Diet:

•  Drink plenty of water each day, ideally filtered, aim for 30ml to 1kg of body weight.
• Increase whole plant foods, high in antioxidants, e.g. legumes and beans, seeds and nuts, grains, vegetable (8-12 serves/day) & fruits 
• Minimise processed & refined foods
•  Maximise dietary sources of good fats (fish especially oily fish like sardines, trout, salmon and anchovies, walnuts and flaxseed meal)
• Eat two generous handful of raw nuts eat day (include walnuts and almonds)
• Minimise saturated fatty acids, avoid hydrogenated vegetable oils and refined oils. Aim for 0.8-1.2g protein/1 kg body weight. 
• Eat protein with each meal.

Lifestyle:

• Give up smoking and alcohol entirely until stable pregnancy has been achievedAlcohol is associated with reduced sperm concentration, motility, morphology andsemen volume, chronic alcohol exposure is association with hormonal abnormalities.
• Cigarette smoking has been shown to decrease sperm counts, motility, and number of normally shaped sperm.
•  Eliminate recreational drugs  (e.g. cannabis)
•  Be a healthy weight and start a healthy weight loss programme if necessary.           
•   Exercise – aim for at least 2-4 hrs/week of cardio exercise for at least 3 different days.
• Avoid excessive exercise as it reduces sperm quality (e.g. high intensity cycling (300km/week).
• Minimise caffeinated beverages - Limit coffee to 1 cup or less per day. Avoid, ‘energy drinks’ as these have high amounts of caffeine, sugar and artificial additives.
•  Reduce electromagnetic and WIFI exposure - Use of laptop computers connected to internet through Wi-Fi decreases human sperm motility and increases sperm DNA fragmentation, therefore keep laptops, ipads away from scrotums and mobile phones out of pockets.
• Stress management - e.g. meditation, yoga, mindful breathing and exercise  

• These factors above can contribute to infertility, miscarriage and ill health of the child.

Sperm are highly susceptible to oxidative stress, this can be caused by environmental toxins, drugs, smoking, heat and radiation and electromagnetic radiation, and when this stress exceeds the antioxidant capacity of seminal plasma, oxidative stress and damage will be the result, effecting sperm quality.

The creation of sperm (spermatogenesis) is temperature dependent - increased scrotal temperature can impair fertility – eg. chefs, bakers, long distance drivers, athletes. After exercise ensure you have a cool shower or ocean swim and change out of tight exercise pants. The process of creating new sperm takes about 72-117 days, which means that 3-4 months is an ideal preconception preparation time.

 For those of you who would like to try for a baby, there is no better way than to start with a preconception check with your health care professional, call us to book a preconception health appointment.