1 year later

Just wanted to post a short update, its now just over a year since i got my first test results, and last week my wife gave birth to my beautiful healthy son after carrying him to full term.

The results of the second test revealed an uptick in almost all parameters apart from head morphology, which remained at zero percent (I'll get a printout of the results next time i go docs and upload it here, i just haven't had a reason to visit yet!)

Although the head morphology remained unchanged for the second test, the fact that we got pregnant after just 6 months of the healthy regimen (after 18 months without success) suggests to me that perhaps there is more going on with teratozoospermia than science currently understands (when you consider sperm takes 3 months to fully mature, it could be argued that it actually only took us 3 months on the healthy regimen to achieve pregnancy - that's pretty speedy!)

In short, i don't believe head morphology is as important as many would have you believe, especially not if the other sperm parameters (like volume & motility) are strong, and your overall wellbeing is healthy.

This link is a particularly encouraging read for anyone who finds themselves in a similar position to me, its a small study, but it summarises;

When all pregnancies were analyzed together, men with 0% Normal Forms achieved twenty pregnancies of which 75% did not require IVF (controls = thirty pregnancies; 76.7% did not require IVF)

The study concludes;

Morphology does not indicate anything with regard to the genetic composition of the spermatozoa or the fertilization potential. Given the controversy surrounding morphology, clinicians are left to ponder what to discuss with men who present to their clinics with poor morphology

Interestingly, men with 0% NF had worse overall semen analyses compared to control men (Table 1). The finding that these men overcame such an overall “disadvantage” to experience high rates of fertilization and live birth success makes an even stronger argument against the routine use of strict morphology in counseling patients.

In summary, men with a complete absence of NF (0%) on strict morphology exhibit high rates of success without IVF. As such, strict morphology should not be used to predict fertilization, pregnancy, or live birth potential. In men with 0% NF, alternative modalities should be considered before immediate IVF.

In my humble on opinion, science is still trying to define what a 'normal form' truly is, and i believe a persons overall health and wellbeing towers above all other parameters when it comes to successful fertilisation.

To anyone that stumbles across this blog in the future due to a poor test result, don't lose hope because one clinician looked at just 100 of your sperm from a limited sample and concluded their strict criteria wasn't met. There is mounting evidence that morphology is not the be-all and end-all when it comes to achieving pregnancy.

I hope you find something on this blog that helps, it worked for me. If you're looking for further support i'd recommend visiting fertilityfriends, as there is a treasure trove of useful information on there from others who have been through the same journey as me.

Best of luck, and most importantly, stay healthy and have fun :)

Lifestyle changes + Second test booked in!

It's now been about 3 months since the results of my first Semen analysis and the start of my new 'morphology improving' lifestyle, so I've booked myself in for the second test, I'll post the results on here once i have them in a few weeks time.

In summary, when it comes to improving sperm morphology, the key findings appear to be;

1. More antioxidants
2. Less heat

My current regimen follows these findings and is based entirely on reputable scientific studies proven to improve sperm morphology in some way;

The Current Regimen;

Supplements;
CoQ10 (300mg x2 a day)
Folic Acid (40mg x2 a day)
Vitamin C (500mg x3 a day)
Acetyl L-Carnitine (1000mg x2 a day)
Omega 3 (1000mg x3 a day)
N-Acetyl-Cysteine 700mg
Semenax - for various supplements inc;
- Zinc 30mg,
- L-Carnitine 500mg,
- Maca 400g,
- Pine Bark Extract 300mg (Pycnogenol),
- L-Arginine 250mg

Diet changes;
1 tin of Tomato soup per day (13mg Lycopene)
3/4 Brazil nuts a day (200ug Selenium, 1mg Vitamin E)
2 Cups Green Tea
Lots of Popcorn (Very high in antioxidants!) No more crisps

Lots of Dark chocolate (80%+ cocoa) No more mars bars

Lots of Goji Berries (extremely high in antioxidants!)
1 bowl of Porridge a day. No more donuts
1 bottle Tomato Juice a day, no more Coca-Cola / sugar drinks

No more takeaways / Pizza / fast food / junk food, all replaced with healthy alternative (salads, soups, loads of vegetables)

Lifestyle changes;
Alcohol intake reduced 80% (no more binge drinking every weekend)
No more strong black coffee
3x 5km run a week
'ice the ball's' 1hr every day (sit on a bag of ice)
Shorts / boxers whenever possible (stay cool) 

I just wanted to share a few extra things I've noticed since starting this regimen;

• Without putting any effort into it, I've lost a stone in weight (about 6.5kg),
• It wasn't an objective of mine to lose weight (I'm 6'2" so I've always thought i could weigh a little more if anything) but I've actually dropped from 13st to 12st in the space of 3 months.
• If anything I've actually been eating a lot more food, so i can only put the weight loss down to eating more healthily and my 5km runs (which i tried to do 3x a week but actually only managed about 2x on average). 
• I've cut out things like crisps, mars bars, donuts, pizza takeaways, McDonalds etc, and replaced them all with their high antioxidant / healthy equivalent, but i certainly haven't been eating any less in terms of volume. 

• I'm sleeping a lot better
• I used to be a very light sleeper and would wake up multiple times in the night, since starting this regimen I've found that i sleep a lot more soundly.
• I put this entirely down to cutting back on Coffee and Alcohol, because nowadays whenever i go for even a few beers or have a single strong coffee, i sometimes don't sleep right for 2/3 days afterwards. It totally sends my system out of whack.

• My Memory and Focus has improved 
• This is an interesting one, I've found that I'm a little sharper at work, and a little more focused on the task at hand. I still get distracted, but not as easily as i used to.
• I think this one might be down to the Acetyl L-Carnitine, which i remember reading helps with cognitive function.

• My Sex Drive has improved 
• After nearly 2 years of trying to conceive, a part of me was thinking sex had almost become a stressful chore, and i think this was starting to impact my libido, but after 3 months of this regimen, my sex drive has gone through the roof! I no longer see sex as a stressful chore, i just want it all the time! 😁💪

I take all of these improvements as a sign that my body is now in a happier place. Hopefully we'll see this reflected in the results of the next test!

Acupuncture

Ok so the last addition to the 'sperm morphology improvement regime' relates to acupuncture.

Acupuncture is something I've always been curious about, I've had it in the past for a hip injury and it definitely 100% helped (the injury cleared up a few days after the acupuncture, coincidence? perhaps, perhaps not).

I've done some reading up on it and there does seem to be some evidence that it can also improve semen parameters.

In Chinese medicine there is a lot of talk of meridian lines & energy flows which can become blocked through things like poor lifestyle or diet. These blockages can cause health problems which can in theory lead to things like poor sperm morphology. Acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine can in help to improve these energy flows, and return the body to its natural state.

In western terms, Acupuncture basically works by having loads of needles stuck into your body at key points, depending on the positioning of these needles, they basically 'sends a biomechanical signal' to the body, which causes a 'biochemical response' in the body.

There are studies here, here and a writeup here which are definitely worth reading. The general consensus appears to be that it can help improve overall sperm health.

Unfortunately a lot of the studies out there have patients receiving 2 sessions a week, acupuncture is a pricey experience, and i simply cannot afford it that frequently! However i wanted to give it a go anyway, so i booked myself in for a session.

The acupuncturist asked me a lot of questions about my health and lifestyle, took a look at my tongue and my semen analysis results, and then stuck a load of needles along my arms and legs and around my belly. She said she'd seen my kind of result before, and believed it to be primarily related to excessive heat in the body.

She theorised that a lack of 'nourishment' in my body (i.e. vitamins) probably wasn't an issue due to my high sperm count, she suspected that my lifestyle was fine, however excessive heat in the testicles was simply destroying the production process.

She suggested i go to a urologist and get checked for a Varicocele, (big vein in the testies that generate a lot or heat). Although my testies look fine to me, there could be a large problematic vein i cant see which could be causing trouble.

She also suggested i wear shorts, boxers, 'ice the balls' regularly, and don't sit down for lengthy periods of time, as this should all help cool things down and hopefully, improve the sperm morphology.

Omega 3

Having moved on from researching anti-oxidants, I'm now looking at everything and anything else which could improve my sperm morphology, and honestly, its slim pickings.

The only thing i can find which isn't an antioxidant, is Omega 3.

There are a few studies out there which investigate the impact of Omega 3 on sperm morphology, this one is perhaps the most interesting, it essentially analysed Omega 3 intake for 99 men and compared various sperm parameters, it found;

"intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) was associated with higher normal sperm morphology. Men in the highest tertile of omega-3 fatty acid intake had a 2.2 (95% CI: 0.7 to 3.4) higher percentage of morphologically normal sperm than men in the lowest tertile of intake."

Here's the table with the stats, the higher the Omega 3 intake as a % of your diet, the higher the sperm morphology;

This is a minor improvement, but I'm looking for all the help i can get, so Omega 3 makes the (now completely full) supplement list!

Next up I'm going to look into acupuncture a little more as there appears to be a few studies out there which suggest it can have a positive impact on sperm morphology.

Semenax and Sperm

After much deliberation, I've decided a product known as Semenax makes the list of supplements.

In my quest to improve my sperm morphology, I have been almost constantly bombarded by advertisements for various 'libido enhancers' all 'scientifically proven' to improve my sex life (I guess after searching for 'how to improve sperm morphology' over 50 times, google tries its best to help out).

So after exhausting pretty much every scientific paper i can find about sperm morphology, I started to look elsewhere, and Semenax is one of many products out there that claims to improve my libido (and sex life among other things).

To cut to the chase, there are a lot of trash products out there, i read up on at least 20 similar 'fertility' and 'male enhancement' products and they were all garbage with no scientific evidence to support their claims.

One of the few products which actually supported some of their claims was Semenax.

The unique selling point of Semenax is that it appears to increase the volume of your semen, by increasing the amount of seminal fluid produced by the body. Semenax has a huge amount of ingredients, so they appear to taking a kitchen sink approach to their product;

Their website gives more details on the effect of all these ingredients, and there is a lot of good stuff in there which ties up with a lot of the research I've conducted over the last few months; Arginine, Zinc, Carnitine, Vitamin E, Pine Bark Extract (Pycnogenol) have all been proven to improve sperm quality.

But the main reason i went with Semenax is because they have actually produced a scientific paper, they tested the product on 60 people and the results actually showed a marginal improvement in sperm morphology;

Though I don't fully understand the ANOVA measurement style, the key thing in my mind is that the morphology numbers improved!

So Semenax makes the list, if this improvement in morphology was down to the antioxidants included in the product, then great. If its down to some of the other ingredients, then I've now got that covered too.

Pycnogenol - The last antioxidant

Pycnogenol is the last of the major antioxidants i think can help improve my Sperm morphology. It also appears to be one of the most powerful antioxidants available.

This paper, details some amazing improvements in sperm morphology - 19 people took 200mg of Pycnogenol a day for 3 months, and this was result;

"...Pycnogenol produced a 38% improvement in sperm morphology "

38% improvement!! That's huge!!

But there's more good news about Pycnogenol, this site concludes that when combined with COQ10, the power of both antioxidants is actually increased;

"The antioxidant effect of both micronutrients together was higher than expected from their respective individual activities, proving that CoQ10 and Pycnogenol cooperate synergistically for maintaining good cardiovascular health."

So Pycnogenol makes the list of antioxidant supplements.

Next up I'm going to look into other supplements which may improve morphology as my research into antioxidants has pretty much dried up!

What causes Teratozoospermia (Part 2)

The more I read up about Teratozoospermia (and not just Teratozoospermia, but male infertility in general), the more i am convinced that Oxidative Stress plays a huge role.

The building blocks behind healthy sperm are quite simple; maintain a healthy weight, exercise regularly (but not to excess), avoid stress and eat a healthy diet of protein, fruit and vegetables. This alone should give a man everything they need to create healthy sperm well into their 40's and 50's. Simple.

But for whatever reason, in some males, there appears to be something happening which impedes the healthy formation of sperm. For a healthy man to have 0% morphology at 33 years old is quite unusual, there must be something else at play, something which is constantly nuking the production process.... And almost every study out there seems to think its Oxidative stress.

There are a few things that (i think) I've come to understand over the last few months which could be impacting me;

1) Oxidative Stress on the testicles is something that can build up over time; The major culprits appear to be

• Alcohol 
• Poor diet
• Excessive heat (in fact i read in some cultures people use excessive heat to sterilise themselves!)

These things cause oxidative stress, which leads to poor sperm morphology.

But there's another source of Oxidative stress, and that's;

• Defective Sperm themselves - They essentially fall to pieces and in doing so, actually cause Oxidative Stress to the other healthy sperm.

So......

More Oxidative Stress means more Defective Sperm
More Defective Sperm leads to more Oxidative Stress

Its a vicious cycle which if left unchecked could totally trash the quality of your sperm.

This article provides a good overview of all things that can impact on sperm quality, it summarises;

"Spermatozoa are vulnerable to ROS (oxidative stress) because their plasma membrane and cytoplasm contain large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids.5 Excessive generation of ROS in semen by leukocytes as well as by abnormal spermatozoa could be a cause of infertility."

I think its possible my intake of antioxidants has been so low over the last few years that the build up of Oxidative Stress has pushed my sperm into this vicious cycle from which it cannot escape on its own..

2) Each cell in the body is under constant attack from Free radicals;

"Bruce Ames, a well-known scientist in the field of antioxidants, estimates that just one cell in the human body is hit about 10,000 times a day by a free radical. If that’s multiplied by the trillions of cells in the body the magnitude of this activity is tremendous."

10,000 times per day for each cell! That truly is huge, the one glass of orange juice a week i had on my old diet really wasn't enough to fight this barrage, so its no wonder my sperm production process has fallen into this vicious cycle. 

The 'cure' to all of this definitely appears to be a huge and ongoing dose of a variety of antioxidants, this should be enough to pull the sperm production process out of this funk and get things back on track. Time will tell, the next sperm test is only a few months away!