“The Male Factor”
Repeated miscarriage, preterm birth, chronic depression and major psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia in offspring…
These can all be related to sperm that have been negatively affected by lifestyle factors, even in someone with a “normal” semen analysis.
Many men, and even many women, tend to think of women when they think of fertility… or infertility.
The truth is that about 30% of infertility is due to a “woman problem” such as PCOS or endometriosis. Another 30% is due to “the male factor”, and the final 30% is either unidentified or attributed to both male and female.
Decreasing male fertility has been in the news lately.
The study about falling sperm count suddenly caught more attention when Erin Brockovich wrote a piece in The Guardian referring to shrinking penises in the title. Go figure.
Diet and lifestyle have major impact on sperm.
Even with a normal semen analysis, certain diet and lifestyle choices can result in lower sperm count, sperm with less vitality and mobility, sperm DNA fragmentation or sperm with poor form. These changes can decrease the chance of fertilization and pregnancy. They can also increase the likelihood of miscarriage and preterm birth when pregnancy does occur.
Sperm mature in the 2-3 months prior to conception. These 2-3 months are critical in the health of the sperm, the health of the pregnancy and baby, and the health of future generations.
Sounds melodramatic but when DNA fragmentation occurs in sperm, epigenetic changes can occur that affect the current pregnancy as well as future generations.
Obesity, exercise, smoking, alcohol, caffeine, illicit drugs, pesticides and environmental toxins, and psychological stress have varying levels of negative effect on male fertility.
Thankfully there are pretty easy measures to significantly decrease the negative impacts.
1) Obesity in men is associated with a decreased pregnancy rate and an increased rate of pregnancy loss.
Higher estrogen and lower testosterone levels in men can result from surges of insulin. This of course affects sperm.
Fat cells hold environmental toxins. These contribute to sperm DNA fragmentation as mentioned above, and can decrease fertility.
The good news is that just loosing a few pounds is often enough to improve fertility.
2) Exercise is good for you, right? Yes, it is. But it is possible to have too much of a good thing.
Too much high intensity exercise can reduce sperm quality, and affect mobility and morphology (form) of sperm. If sperm don’t have a tail they can’t swim to the egg. If they don’t have a pointy head they can’t penetrate the egg when they get there.
So, make sure you are recovering well after intense workouts. This is usually within a few hours. If you are still wiped out the next morning, just backing off a bit, giving your body time to restore can help.
3) Smoking, including second hand smoke, decreases sperm quality.
Nicotine and chemicals in cigarettes have a devastating impact on every male fertility pathway.
Certainly, not smoking and avoiding second hand smoke is best. But again, even decreasing amounts can be helpful.
4) Alcohol. Semen quality is not made worse by occasional alcohol intake. Good to know, huh? But both number and form of sperm are negatively affected by daily consumption.
If your habit is a drink or 2 in the evenings, try to skip a few days a week.
5) Coffee and tea have not been shown to affect sperm.
However, cola and caffeine containing soft drinks do seem to increase sperm DNA defects such as chromosomal defects and DNA breaks.
Male coffee intake was associated with prolonged time to pregnancy in some, but not all studies.
Kicking the soda habit will benefit your fertility and your health in many ways. If you are a heavy coffee drinker and experiencing infertility you might consider decreasing coffee intake a bit.
6) Illicit drug use during that 2-3 month window of sperm development before conception can have long lasting consequences on offspring.
Epigenetic changes in sperm can “turn on” behavioral abnormalities such as schizophrenia, chronic depression and other psychological disorders. They can also increase rate of miscarriage and preterm birth, as well as decrease fertility.
Same as with smoking... Better to do none, but decreasing a little can help some and decreasing significantly can help even more.
7) Pesticides and environmental toxins like BPA and air pollution decrease sperm count and sperm motility.
One study showed that just replacing one serving of vegetable per day with an organic version improved pregnancy rates and decreased pregnancy loss.
The “clean 15” and “dirty dozen”, named each year on www.ewg.org, will help you spend your grocery dollars wisely. The clean 15 are fruits and veggies you don’t need to buy organic. The dirty dozen are ones you definitely want to buy organic due to really high pesticide levels.
I highly recommend consulting the clean 15 and dirty dozen when buying fruits and veggies. As mentioned, just replacing some servings with organic options makes a positive impact.
Also, the more anti-oxidant foods you consume, the more you counteract some of the environmental toxin load. This means cold-water fatty fish for the EPA/DHA omega-3’s (or high quality cod liver oil or ratfish oil), and lots of colored fruits and veggies for the various flavonoids.
8) Stress in couples in the preconception period increases the risk of infertility according to the 2014 LIFE study.
Non-adapted stress impacts thyroid function and suppresses male and female fertility hormones. Non-adapted stress is bottled up stress or stresses you feel you have no way to resolve. These have a broad negative effect on our health, and our fertility.
When couples had healthy coping skills such as social groups, exercise, family support and meditation the stress had less impact on fertility.
So, talking with someone about what stresses you can turn your non-adapted stress to something you can more easily handle, and something that will have less impact on your fertility.
As always, adding more fun, nature, movement, connection and relaxation to your routine can help to counteract stress and make life more enjoyable.
As most of you know, I am licensed to see women, not men. However, it is really beneficial to see couples together when it comes to fertility. Nothing prevents me from counseling or giving information to men. I just wouldn’t manage their care, like ordering and interpreting tests or prescribing treatments.
Couples who work together on fertility have the best outcomes. And their relationship benefits as well.
Please let me know if you would like to talk about fertility.