Natural supplements for low to no sperm please. Any success stories?

[Karlove]

Hello all

My Partner and I have been so sad today as the GP gave my partner bad news. Apparently the first semen test had 0.5 sperm and the second has 0.

I feel like there is still a natural way to have his sperm increase and improve in quality.

I know from my passed experiences I have taken herbs and supplements or eaten nutritional foods to rectify my ailments more than 3 times which to me personally is proof that there must be some solace out there with a herb or supplement that will help him.

I have asked him to stop wearing polyester shorts, drinking bottled water from plastic bottles, avoid caffeine, take some normal supplements like Ashwaghanda, panax ginseng and the likes of vitamins.

Is there something else, that he could do or not do? Would also be nice to hear some success stories from no sperm count diagnosis with natural herbs, remedies, etc. while we await the medical route sadly.

Try NAC, google it

Hi there,
Obvious one but is he taking COQ10?
Also there are a Welsh couple on YouTube called Fab and Ell, they have a popular video (1m+ views) i believe where they talk about what supplements they took to help with - and please dont quote me but I think it was to do with the male's fertility. Worth looking that up.

Is this N-Acetyl Cysteine? Will read about it now. Do you know of someone who’s used it with success? Very grateful for this.

This is amazing!! I will have a look at their videos, been researching a lot today.

No he hasn’t been taking but I asked him to order coq10 so he has now. Thank you for this, very kind.

Yes that’s it exactly, there’s a lot of research papers on its effect on sperm quality. The research looks interesting and fertility experts recommend it. You should also take it too, great for skin and overall health

Thank you for this. I’ve been looking into it and seems like it is synthetic which generally is very hard for the body to absorb. I will keep reading into it as you said it’s helps sperm quality. Thank you again.

Have they given you a reason for his low sperm count? For example my husbands highest sample count was 4. Not million which would still be low. It actually just 4 sperm. That was because the operation on his undescended testicles as a toddler was performed too late and the damage was already done. Have they given any reason?

We did get a baby but not without ICSI.

Thank you for this and sorry to hear about the situation at your end too. Not yet, the GP has referred him to a specialist now. Let’s see what comes off it.

How long before the ICSI please?

I had 6 cycles of ICSI before a live birth. In all the cycles though I did have good quality embryos using my husbands sperm so although he had such low low sperm count it didn’t cause issues with actual embryo quality, if you see what I mean - his sperm motility was also very poor but morphology was brilliant! So his sperm were few and far between and the ones he did have were very lazy but other than that they were good quality sperm!

What sort of specialist has the GP referred you to? We were initially referred to a Urologist, who was terrible and we only really started to get answers when we made our own appointment at a fertility clinic and different tests were offered.

Also, to add my husband had a Merc Test - this enabled us to have a frozen ‘bank’ of good quality sperm to use IF during a fresh cycle of ICSI his fresh sample didn’t contain any sperm - there are options!

We are struggling with the same thing so sorry no success stories. I have some advice though (but take with a pinch of salt because no success story here)

My husband takes this (expensive but has high values of nutrients): https://uk.iherb.com/pr/fairhaven-health-fh-pro-fertility-multivitamin-for-men-180-capsules/73940?utm_campaign=1011l116914&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=delupe

As you probably know wild nutrition is a great source of natural supplements.

So from what I know these are the things to do (which you probably know already); loose underwear, no alcohol, no caffeine, organic where possible, Mediterranean diet (fish, eggs, walnuts, blueberries particularly good), limit as much plastic from cooking utensils as possible, use no cosmetics with fragrance in, remove artificial cleaning products and fragrances from the home, encourage him to a healthy BMI and exercise.

And this is what to test for as there may be a simple answer as to why the counts are low;

• Testosterone and FSH levels (I had to push to get our GP to do this as a result of the sperm count, but I figure the more you can get tested on the NHS the less you may have to get tested through a private consultant in the future potentially) - they can supplement if these levels are not normal to help sperm production
• Testicular ultrasound scan to test for varicocele (Again I pushed to be this through our GP) - This is a very common reason for low sperm count and can be fixed with an operation
• Karotype/ cystic fibrosis test (This does not give you This would be done at the point where you go through to a fertility consultant I don’t think a GP would be able to get this for you) - This will not give you a solution but it is to test if there’s a serious genetic issue just in case
• DNA fragmentation test (This is private fertility specialist/ urologist territory, you cannot get this on the NHS and it is very expensive, I would wait for a private consultant to tell you if you need this before spending the money) - This will not give any solution but it is relatively new technology and can tell the quality of each sperm rather than just the amounts, it gives you more information basically and the kind fertility treatment you may need
• Semen culture test (Again private fertility specialist/ urologist territory) - This shows if there’s a an underlying infection which can be fixed with targeted antibiotics

This is my experience and what I would do again and what I would do differently;

What I would do again;

• Get as much testing as possible done on the NHS i.e. semen analysis, testosterone/ FSH blood test, testicular ultrasound to check for varicocele
• Have further semen analysis tests privately so that we have a clear up to date picture as it can change after a few months

What I would do differently;

• Not wait for an NHS referral to fertility in the hope they would look into reasons for the male side - they will not look into this (I initially asked the GP for a referral to urology and she said wait for what fertility suggests as they may refer you on, I wish I hadn’t listened to that)
• See a private urologist earlier or push the NHS to see a urologist (but only after doing basic lifestyle changes and tests with the NHS first, if no change after 6 months of improved lifestyle and no quick fix from the tests then I would pay the money for a private urologist)
• Not get expensive tests for semen culture and sperm oxidative stress from a separate clinic before seeing urologist (the urologist will want to do their own tests anyway so this was a waste of time)

I am now in the situation where the NHS want to get going with IVF for us but we haven’t had everything looked at from the male side to see if there is a solution on that side of things before we undertake IVF. I just believed they would do this before IVF but that hasn’t happened for us so we wish we had pushed for a urology referral before a fertility referral. I would suggest you do this as there may be a simple problem that needs fixing depending on how much time you have on your side.

Hello can I please ask what a Merc test is please?

A ‘Merc Test’ is a Multiple Ejaculation Resuspension and Centrifugation Test. It’s where a man will give multiple samples on the same day (my husband gave 4 - it was a exhausting day for him!) and the samples are placed in a centrifuge - this separates the sperm from the fluid and allows the clinician to ‘see’ and choose the best sperm out of a very low sample that they otherwise may not be able to see and find. Basically it’s a way for them to get the highest possible number of healthy sperm from an incredibly low sample and then freeze them.

Just go see a urologist privately asap. It will save you so much time and money and heartache in the long run. Ask me how I know… We did eventually become parents but I really wish we’d seen a urologist sooner.

Thanks so much, can that be used for IUI at all do you know?

I would imagine not. IUI would need quite a good number of healthy, motile sperm to have a good chance of working, as there is no direct insemination like there is with ICSI. So, the sperm would essentially have to ‘do the job’ themselves!

Thank you for this. We haven’t yet been referred as they apparently have to talk to me which will be on the 5th of June. How annoying that we have to wait for an appointment to provide an appointment. So many gaps and time passes us by.

would you think the specialist would give us a merc test if we ask for it straight away or do I have to fight for it / negotiate like a hostage situation?

Oh yes my man is fit and very healthy. He has only recently started reducing plastic water bottles and has been changing his plastic shorts to natural material - and yes loose like you said.

I thought FSH (Follicle stimulating Hormone) is only for women so the follicle can rupture to produce an egg. What does FSH do for a man?

Variocele, cystic fibrosis - I will push for then. I’ll read about these. We might need to go straight to the urologist and then the fertility specialist then as soon as possible due to the fact that NHS travels at a snails pace.

I must thank you abundantly for such detailed information. May God bless you with a baby or even two. Ever so grateful.

Thank you. Everyone seems to be saying this. Better get a urologist first

A urologist won’t offer you one I don’t believe - it would be a fertility specialist with the intention to freeze them or use them in a cycle. Aaand if I was you, and had funds available, I would get that started, privately, sooner rather than later.

Anything ‘fertility’ on the NHS will involve a wait and in many cases, a lengthy one. My husbands NHS urologist actually said the words ‘you will never be a biological father’. That wasn’t at all true.

We started at our fertility clinic when I was 23, we attended an open evening that was free to attend with no pressure to book anything and it gave us a wealth of knowledge and options that NHS appointments simply didn’t provide. It’s worth attending one in your area if for nothing else than to get information should you eventually need it! They will also help you with more factual info regarding nutrition etc!

Breaking out a very old name for this! When we had fertility issues, H’s swimmers were low and slow. Long story short, they found a prolactinoma. It was a tumour (non-cancerous) that was secreting a hormone normally only found in women after birth, driving down his testosterone. This was treated (by an endocrinologist), all improved and we conceived naturally about 9 months after treatment. So I would suggest you ask the GP to check his prolactin levels because if they are raised, they can get him referred to endocrinology ASAP.

So FSH in a man triggers the body to produce sperm, a high FSH in a man suggests the body is being triggered to produce more sperm because it is not producing that much. It’s worth getting this, testosterone and oestrogen levels tested. We did this through our GP.

The ultrasound to check for varicocele we also did through the GP.

The karotype and cystic fibrosis we had done when we went to fertility, maybe the GP can arrange the test but I’m not sure.

We did a sperm culture and oxidative stress test with a private clinic before seeing a urologist because we though it might save time but they wanted to do their own tests of these so that was a waste of money, they did however rely on the ultrasound and blood tests done by the NHS.

I tried to get urology through my GP, she told me to wait to see if fertility would direct us there or look into things. That didn’t happen so I wished I’d insisted to go to urology before fertility, but it all depends how much time you have before you want to try treatment.

Hi
Im sorry for your news.

I would recommend you :

Get on some good supplements
Good sleep
Regular moderate exercise
But also importantly is Optimal Temperature - for Sperm production (spermatogenesis) requires an environment cooler than core body temperature get some loose fitting cool underwear.