How to Boost Fertility Naturally in Men

While society considers a female’s fertility its own private business — people ranging from well-meaning relatives to acquaintances you’ve hardly ever interacted with pushing unsolicited fertility and infertility sermons your way, the males are largely excluded from this chatter.

Though this might seem like a favorable spot to be in, the flipside is — we totally ignore that men too are affected by infertility, so much so that every one in three cases of infertility experienced by the couple is due to male infertility causes. Now, we don’t want males to be bombarded with fertility and infertility advice too, but what we want is to create a space where Male and Female infertility issues can be discussed without any feeling of intrusiveness or judgment. Infertility is affecting millions of people right now, and the taboo and judgment only push us farther away from our goal of making Fertility healthcare accessible to all.

Men’s issues, in general, are often neglected because society puts undue pressure on men to toughen up and conceal how they are feeling. Additionally, society has always put the onus of infertility on women — so men who do experience it do not know how to approach it and where to look for the right resources. It is very important to change this narrative as men deserve the best healthcare when it comes to infertility and safe spaces to talk about it. More awareness around fertility would ensure that fertility facts are well known amongst the society and with empowerment by knowledge, people know how to maximize their chances of conceiving.

Men’s Fertility can be affected by a lot of reasons — Libido, erectile dysfunction, hormonal reasons, and sperm morphology. To get to the root cause of the problem, a doctor would often suggest multiple tests if you have been having difficulty conceiving.

A lot of people like to enhance their fertility holistically — making dietary and lifestyle changes, reducing stress, managing their schedules to make it less hectic, and focus on improving their health, it’s important to know that a doctor can better chart out a plan to deal with the root cause of conceiving troubles and help you with a treatment plan — in that situation, it is much better for you to consider booking an appointment with the experts. Additionally, “Tips” such as these should be taken with a pinch of salt, as it is only your doctor who can tell you a 100% correct approach to improving fertility. Read and discuss everything, but follow what your doctor recommends is our motto.

Here’s a list of what all you can do to potentially increase your fertility levels –

Get your Vitamins and Minerals

Surprise Surprise! A lot of us are deficient in essential vitamins and minerals. I think the reason a lot of us don’t maintain food diaries and journals is that it’ll tell us just how substandard our food choices have become when it comes to nutrients — easy access to junk food thanks to food delivery options has served as a boon for late-night snacking when you’re trying to meet work deadlines or binging with friends, but definitely a bane if you’re relying on it too much for your nutrient needs. To expand this further, let us understand how vitamins and minerals impact male fertility –

Vitamin C — Vitamin C is a protective vitamin that preserves the DNA of the sperm from free radical damage thereby protecting them from Oxidative stress. Studies have established Vitamin C’s role in sperm motility (the ability of the sperm to swim to the ovum), morphology(The anatomy of the sperm), and sperm concentration.

Vitamin E — Vitamin E has been known to improve sperm motility. It has been seen that Vitamin E supplementation has shown improvement in pregnancy rates. Vitamin E is found in vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, and leafy greens.

Selenium — Though selenium is a trace mineral (required in small amounts), it is an important mineral that improves sperm motility and works in conjugation with Vitamin E to prevent sperm damage from free radicals. It’s found in products such as brazil nuts and seafood, though it can also be supplemented if your dietary choices do not accommodate these.

Lycopene — Lycopene is a mineral that is found in abundance in testis, and some research suggests that it might have a role in the improvement of sperm parameters. Looks like it’s a good time to start adding tomatoes to your fancy salads.

L-Carnitine- L-Carnitine is an amino acid derivative that has anti-oxidant properties and also serves as an energy source for sperm enhancing its mobility.

Zinc — This trade mineral is pretty much an all-rounder — playing a role in the formation of the sperm, metabolism of testosterone, and sperm motility. Its natural sources also help it maintain its all-rounder status, with zinc being found abundantly in vegetarian and non-vegetarian sources — beans, legumes, nuts, dairy, seeds, seafood, meat, and poultry. Zinc is made available by nature to even the fussiest of eaters.

Folic Acid — Folic Acid is primarily responsible for DNA synthesis and also has a role to play in sperm motility and sperm count. Leafy green vegetables such as kale and spinach as well as beans such as kidney beans and chickpeas are known to contain folic acid. Folic acid can also be consumed in bread and cereals, as some are fortified with folic acid.

Ensure your diet is rich in vitamins and minerals, if you think your diet doesn’t quite accommodate these, talk to your doctor about it. They’ll be able to determine if you could benefit from multivitamins and supplements and decide the dosage for you. As a general caution — Please don’t consume any supplement or vitamin extract without the consultation of a doctor.

Get some Sun, Son.

Sun literally hands out free vitamin D to the public. Some research has shown that Vitamin D can help improve testosterone levels in men. Now some research has also shown over-exposure to have a detrimental effect.

There have been mixed studies when it comes to Vitamin D and its effect on male infertility, however, a significant number of studies do point towards how it helps improve hormones and sperm motility. Vitamin D additionally also improves the absorption and uptake of other minerals so it’s important for general health. It can be obtained through food sources and abundantly through sunlight.

Moderation is key, so don’t toss that out. And Sunscreen, don’t toss that out either. We don’t want you to get a sunburn.

Maintain a Healthy Weight

Moderate exercise, healthy eating, an active lifestyle, more healthy foods, and fewer junk foods — this is basic and you’ve probably read this a lot of times previously in a lot of different contexts.

Being overweight or underweight can negatively impact the hormonal balance and thereby affect sperm quality. Being overweight has also been shown to have a detrimental effect on testosterone levels.

If your doctor recommends weight loss or weight gain as a means to improve your fertility, you can consider consulting a Dietician and Nutritionist to help you with a diet chart. Hit and trial methods are not something you should indulge in when working on something so time-specific — Fertility. A dietitian is a specialist who can help you with the correct diet — that’s full of nutrients and helps you maintain the desired weight.

Get some Exercise

It’s good for your hormones, it’s good for your health, it’s good for your mental health, it’s good for the maintenance money you contribute to your colony park — It’s a good thing to do. It can also be a good couple activity and help you discover something new. You don’t have to start with joining a gym or thinking in that direction at all, a simple jogging routine, some yoga, badminton with the spouse, joining a neighborhood club — all of these can make a great workout. With the lockdown and Covid-19 protocols requiring people to maintain social distance, you can try out home-based workout routines.

Studies have shown that exercisers have better sperm motility, shape, and concentration along with less oxidative stress to the DNA of the sperm than the non-exercisers.

You can get in touch with a Yoga expert to discuss if yoga can help you get the exercise you need.

Early to bed, Early to rise

Makes you healthy, wealthy, wise, and fertile. We took poetic liberty to edit that popular saying a little bit, but the point essentially is that you NEED ADEQUATE SLEEP AT NIGHT TIME. We have been pushing our sleeping times so much — First it was 10 pm, it slowly became 12, a few people stretched it to 1, and a lot of us slept well after 2 am. What happened to us, the kids who wanted nap time even in school? Sometimes we feel amongst the adults of the country, it is only Akshay Kumar who sleeps on time.

The reason for hours of sleep having an impact on fertility can be due to hormonal reasons — Testosterone is released the most during a man is sleeping and hence poor sleep decreases the amount of testosterone. Poor sleep quality and quantity consistently also has an impact on your overall health — hence if your overall health is poor it is likely your fertility would be affected too.

We need to seriously take back the charge of our sleep time — night-time sleep ensures our hormones are in check, rejuvenates us, helps replenish our health, and ensures we have a better mood throughout the day.

Take charge of your stress

Yes, this sounded like we are trying to be your motivational coach; no that isn’t our intention. Stress is detrimental to your fertility. We are not asking you to quit your job and open a sea-side shack while strumming to groovy music, we’re saying you need to learn to manage your stress in a more efficient manner. Maybe not a sea-side shack right now, but taking some time out to really enjoy that cup of tea, saying no to anything that drains you of your energy, and letting out your feelings by being truly heard are some of the ways you can implement.

Okay, that did sound a lot like a motivational coach. To not make solid advice sound cringe-worthy, we would suggest you talk to people who know this better. Joining support forums and talking to a Psychologist can help you better understand how to effectively manage your stress.

Stress can cause oxidative stress that can impact the quality of sperm. Stress also has a negative impact on libido and hence affects conception.

A psychologist can help you with therapy and behavioral modifications which help you be more at ease with your emotions. Everyone deserves a safe space to be heard in a non-judgemental way, and a psychologist does exactly that- listening without any judgment. If you’re worried about fertility issues — such as IVF Costs, the IVF treatment amount etc, let us help you sort that out. Once upon a time, IVF was considered something only the rich could afford — but EMIs have completely changed that. It’s now a treatment that can be made available according to your purchasing power. IVF Junction provides you a Cost Calculator and EMI calculator that ensures transparency and no hidden cost approach. You needn’t worry about IVF costs if it’s on your mind, our experts have already discussed this to come to a feasible financial approach.

Now that you’ve read this article, let’s do a little activity. Assume the name of the article is — How to boost your health naturally. Do you notice how these points still apply? That’s the very idea. Fertility is optimum if your health is optimum — if you take care of your health, fertility is automatically taken care of. Honestly, some infertility cases would definitely require an expert intervention — sperm-related tests, ultrasounds, and a doctor’s consultation can be the only medically appropriate way to diagnose and treat infertility. What tips like these can do, however, is ensure you aren’t actively harming your conception chances. Share this with friends and family members who you know are looking for credible fertility-related information — save them from logging onto uncredible sites completely exploiting a person’s naivety (There are bizarre myths on the internet, take our word for it. We spend time debunking them, hence we know). For more fertility information, you can always trust IVF Junction. We bring to you only the most credible, factual, and trustworthy resources so you don’t get misguided by all the clickbaity stuff on the internet.

Source : https://ivfjunction.com/blog/boost-fertility-naturally-in-men/