Tips for Sperm Health

Posted on January 5th, 2008 by olga

As a matter of fact, if semen analysis confirms that you might have fertility problems, you should do the following things:
-First, seek advice from a urologist to make out what might be wrong. If it’s a varicocele (a group of swollen veins in the scrotum that can raise temperatures enough to impair sperm production), that can be corrected surgically. If it’s an infection, there are antibiotics.
Moreover, there are also steps you can take on your own:
-You should avoid smoking, excessive alcohol and recreational drugs. They damage your fertility and are awful for your overall health also.
-Get regular exercise.
-Watch your weight. Being overweight has an effect on hormone production, which can decrease sperm counts and boost the risk of irregular sperm.
-Stay out of the sauna. Sperm are heat-sensitive. As a result, try to keep away from hot tubs, whirlpools, saunas and steam rooms. More than 30 minutes of exposure to water temperatures of 102 degrees could lower sperm counts.
-Cut your stress. Despite the fact that experts have the same opinion that stress doesn’t cause infertility, it may add by affecting hormones involved in sperm creation.
-Get your vitamins. A daily multivitamin provides selenium, zinc and folic acid — all of which are significant for sperm health. Sperm are as well vulnerable to oxidants (unstable oxygen molecules that damage cell membranes). Consequently, antioxidant support can at times be useful. You should take vitamin C or vitamin E.
-Choose your best time. Sperm counts are usually highest early in the morning. And since sperm are influenced by temperature, their numbers have a tendency to be higher in winter and lower in summer.
-Cut back on biking. Bicycle riding appears to be harmful, mainly for more than 30 minutes at a stretch using hard, narrow, racing-style seats and wearing tight bicycle shorts. The jarring contacts may create genital numbness and potentially harm the nerves and blood vessels of the male reproductive system. To lower your risk, shorten your trips, replace your narrow bike saddle with a wider one and wear looser, padded shorts. You might also adjust your seat so that it points slightly downward.
-Tight underwear damages male.
When more aggressive steps are needed
At times, more serious interventions are required. Available therapies consist of: hormone manipulation, microsurgical repair of reproductive blockages or varicoceles, artificial insemination and even surgical harvesting of sperm. Some treatments are noninvasive, meaning that they involve no surgery at all. And when surgery is needed, it’s usually done on an outpatient basis with no hospital stay.