How to improve male fertility with Chinese medicine
- Darren Rose
- December 5, 2020
- 10:11 pm
One in seven couples have trouble conceiving. And as the word “couple” suggests some of that will be attributed to Male infertility, current research indicates it could be up to 40% to 50%.
Around 7% of men suffer from some form of sperm issues, the most common ones are measured easily with a semen analysis or male fertility test: concentration (sperm count), how they move (motility) and how they look or are formed (morphology).
How to understand a sperm analysis
Concentration (Sperm count)
Concentration is one of three big factors that are examined as part of a semen analysis to evaluate male infertility. We need to have a high enough volume and concentration of semen in the ejaculate to ensure there is enough to give us the best chance of conceiving. A low sperm concentration will have an adverse effect as it will lower the chances we have.
A low sperm count is considered to be fewer than 39 million per ejaculate or 15 million sperm per ml.
How they move (Motility)
The second aspect is motility (amount of movement) or vitality (amount alive) the sperm are exhibiting. It’s also a major factor as this “motility” will allow them to move towards and penetrate the embryo successfully.
Test results that show less than 40% total motility and 32% progressive motility are considered low.
How they look (Morphology)
The third aspect, morphology, describes the shape and size of sperm. Abnormal sperm can have both or only head and tail defects. It’s quite common to have a small quantity of normal looking sperm. Low morphology is considered less than 4% normal sperm.
WHO reference range | |
|---|---|
Total sperm count in ejaculate | 39–928 million |
Ejaculate volume | 1.5–7.6 mL |
Sperm concentration | 15–259 million per mL |
Total motility (progressive and non-progressive) | 40–81 percent |
Progressive motility | 32–75 percent |
Sperm morphology | 4–48 percent |
What can I do to improve my sperm?
Lifestyle and other causes
One way we can improve our semen results is to change our lifestyle. Although it seems as if this will not have a big impact singularly, each aspect we change will combine sinegesically. Combining lifestyle changes with supplements and Chinese medicine gives us the best results.
Lifestyle factors we can change to help:
- Smoking – Smoking tends to have the biggest effect on lowering sperm count, even secondhand smoke can lead to a low sperm count.
- Alcohol use – Regular alcohol consumption can decrease sperm production and lower testosterone levels.
- Drugs – Recreational drugs and even some prescription medications can affect sperm negatively, check any medication you’re taking for potential negative side effects.
- Emotional stress – Stress has an impact on our hormonal regulation, which is needed for normal sperm production.
- Weight – Excess weight gain can reduce male fertility by creating hormonal changes.
- Overheating the testicles – One of the testicles’ jobs is to act as a thermoregulator for optimal production and function of sperm. Anything that inhibits this ability and increases temperature for long periods of time can have a negative impact on production. This includes: long hot baths, saunas, tight underwear, sitting for long periods, working on a laptop computer etc.
Chinese medicine and supplements
Although lifestyle factors can make some improvements to our sperm, we found that the best results come from combining healthy lifestyle with Chinese herbal medicine.
There are many studies that show Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture can considerably improve male infertility by taking the correct herbal formula with acupuncture for 12 weeks. The formula is available on my web shop here.
There are many brands that offer male infertility supplements, but they all contain the same basic ingredients, L-Carnitine and L-Arginine, pine bark and a handful of other things. Although these ingredients can help with sperm concentration, they don’t have much impact on morphology and motility issues. My favourite, as it’s the least expensive and almost the same as it’s more expensive alternatives, is Viridian Fertility for Men. Other brands like Proxeed are also great options.
If you want to know more or have a chat about your condition, get in touch to see how we can help!