Natural ways to increase fertility

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ThMany studies show that healing your body with vitamins, herbs, massage, and other safe, inexpensive methods can in many cases help you get pregnant faster than traditonal medical treatments. Many natural treatments can be used in addition to medical treatments so you know you are doing all you can to welcome your new little one home.

Women may want to consider these supplements:

• A quality multivitamin may increase fertility. (Czeizel AE, Metneki J, Dudas I. The effect of preconceptional multivitamin supplementation on fertility. Int J Vitam Nutr Res 1996;66:55–8).
• Iron (10-20 mg/day) Anemia can lead to infertility. Women who bleed profusely may be anemic, those who rarely bleed may in fact be either anemic or too high in iron.
• Vitamin C (500-1500 mg/day) This powerful anti-oxidant helps to protect cells and strengthen the immune system.
• Vitamin E (400-800 i.u. per day) Vitamin E may increase egg quality. In a preliminary human trial, infertile couples given vitamin E (200 IU per day for the female and 100 IU per day for the male) showed a significant increase in fertility. (Bayer R. Treatment of infertility with vitamin E. Int J Fertil 1960;5:70–8)
• PABA (para-aminobenzoic acid) (400 mg/day) Some women have become pregnant with PABA. PABA is believed to increase the ability of estrogen to facilitate fertility. (Sieve BF. The clinical effects of a new B-complex factor, para-aminobenzoic acid, on pigmentation and fertility. South Med Surg 1942;104:135–9)
• Co-enzyme-Q10 (30-100 mg/day) May improve egg quality.
• Folate, also known as folic acid (400-800 mcg/day). Folic acid may prevent neural tube defects and other birth defects. It also protects your heart.
• L-Arginine (16 g/day) Was shown to increase fertility in women who had previously failed in-vitro fertilization-IVF-procedures. (Battaglia C, Salvatori M, Maxia N, et al. Adjuvant L-arginine treatment for in-vitro fertilization in poor responder patients. Hum Reprod 1999;14:1690–7)
•Essential fatty acids (EFA) (1-7 grams per day) can help the health of your reproductive system, insulin levels, heart and brain. EFA reduce inflammation throughout the body (a possible cause of PCOS and other types of infertility) and promote overall health. The best source is purified fish oil (don’t take cod liver oil as it is too high in vitamins A & D and may prove toxic).

Men may wish to consider these supplements:

• Vitamin C (500-1500 mg/day) Vitamin C helps to combat the pollution we are surrounded with. Pollution, particularly agricultural chemicals have been shown to cause much lower sperm counts. Vitamin C has been shown to reduce DNA damage in sperm by 91%. It is also shown to reduce agglutination and abnormalities. Vitamin C (1000mg) per day raised sperm counts by 140% in the first week in one study and 200 mg increased sperm counts by 112% in the first week. After 60 days the 200 mg group had caught up with the 1000mg group. All of these men had impregnated their wives by the end of the study.
• Vitamin E (400-800 i.u. per day) Studies show that vitamin E can increase sperm potency by 2 ½ times. Two studies found that vitamin E supplementation lead to a 20% pregnancy rate in previously infertile men. That is higher than most assisted reproduction procedures! Take vitamin E in mixed tocopherol form. Take it with vitamin C but do not take it without consulting your doctor if you have anemia, poorly clotting blood, hyperthyroid, high blood pressure, or liver disease.
• Zinc (15-60 mg/day) Even a mild zinc deficiency can cause drastically lower sperm counts. Zinc may also improve sexual function. In one study, thirty-seven men with more than five years of infertility, and whose sperm counts were less than 25 million/ml took 60 mg of zinc daily for forty-five to fifty days. For the twenty-two patients with initially low testosterone levels showed an increase in testosterone and mean sperm count increased significantly, from 8 to 20 million/ml. Nine of the twenty- two wives became pregnant during the study. For the fifteen men with normal testosterone levels, sperm count increased slightly but there was no change in testosterone level and no pregnancies occurred. If you take zinc for longer than a few weeks you should add 1-3 mg of copper to prevent a copper deficiency.
• B-12 (10-100 mcg/day) and a B-Complex supplement can help balance testosterone and LH/FSH secretions. Lack of B-vitamins is very common in people who eat mostly refined and processed foods as well as those who smoke. Twenty-seven percent of men in one study with sperm counts under 20 million/ml took 1,000 mcg of vitamin B12 per day. As a result, their total sperm count increased in excess of 100 million/ml.
• Selenium (100-200 mcg/day) Selenium deficiency causes fragile sperm with easily broken tails. Semen is high in selenium so it must be replenished regularly. Selenium is toxic in large doses so don’t take more than 200 mcg day. One double-blind trial found that sperm counts doubled in previously infertile men after supplementation with selenium.
• Co-enzyme-Q10 (30-100 mg/day) increases sperm counts. Also an anti-oxidant.
• L-Carnitine (up to 3 grams per day) An Italian study found that 2 grams a day of carnitine for three months dramatically improved sperm counts and mobility.
• A good multi-vitamin including vitamin A. It is not a good idea to take vitamin A separately as it is very easy to overdose on this vitamin. A multi will not have enough of the other supplements, but it is a good starting place to make sure you are not missing anything. Vitamin A helps improve sperm production.
• Essential fatty acids (EFA) are even more important for men than for women. Eat lots of coldwater fish and ground flax seed or supplement with a combination of between 1-7 grams of fish oil and flax oil capsules. Fish oil and flax oil contain different EFA so you will need to add substantial amounts of both to your diet. EFA are important for lowering your risk of diabetes and heart disease, improving overall health, and improving sperm count. Be careful about taking too much if you are on blood thinners. Be sure to choose distilled fish oil because oils such as cod liver oil contain toxic levels of vitamin A.
• L-Arginine (2-4 g) Arginine has shown very promising results in numerous studies on both sperm counts and motility. It is best used when everything else has failed.Link

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

Thanks! I just looked over DH's multivitamin & it is below on a lot of the "key" ingredients. I am off to get him something new!

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

Thanks. Very interesting info.

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

This is great info, thanks!

DH takes GNC's Mega Men Sport and it has almost all of these supplements (almost the right amounts)

Vitamin C -- 300 mg
Vitamin E -- 100 i.u.
Zinc -- 25 mg
B-12 -- 50 mcg
Selenium -- 200 mcg
L-Carnitine -- 215 mg
L-Arginine -- 215 mg
Vitamin A -- 5000 i.u.

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

Dh takes GNC ArginMax for men's sexual health

A 5000 IU
C 60 mg
E 30 IU
Thiamin 1.5mg
Riboflavin 1.7 mg
Niacin 20 mg
B-6 2 mg
Folic Acid 400 mcg
b-12 6 mcg
Biotin 300 mcg
Pantothenic Acid 10 mg
Zind 15 mg
Selenium 70 mcg
L-Arginine 3 g
Asian Ginsing 100 mg
American Ginsing 100 mg
Ginkgo Biloba 50 mg

He also takes a 200 mcg of Selenium for increased motility and and extra 50 mg of zinc.

It says on the bottle that it take about 4 weeks for full results. I think that is how long it takes sperm to develop. I hope it helps us!!!

ETA: I am going to bring these supplements to the Fertility Urologist today and see what she says. I will let you know!

Message edited 3/6/2008 7:56:00 AM.

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

Thanks for posting - interesting... I will have to look at DH's vitamins when I get home today!

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

Wow. Great information. DH recently bought some new vitamins, I am going to have to check them out today.

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

this is great, thanks! DH does not take any vitamins. I guess I should go buy him some!

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

Message edited 7/16/2012 8:03:01 PM.

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

i would hardly call these methods "natural."
A drug is a drug, just because you buy something at GNC makes it no more natural than prescribed medications and
they have been less studied, and are very poorly monitored for safety and purity by the FDA.

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

Well there is a difference between natural drugs and synthetic drugs.

If you are not interested in it, don't take it. Just because a drug is researched and THEN prescribed means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!!

Do you know how many drugs are FDA approved and cause serious permanent damage to ones health? Palease! Taking vitamin E will do much less harm then taking Adder-al or Vicodin, or Dexedrine. THESE are the drugs to watch out for, not taking a dose of vitamin C.

Message edited 3/6/2008 9:41:26 PM.

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Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

Message edited 3/7/2008 10:17:35 AM.

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility

oh pubmed i never thought of that

Re: Natural ways to increase fertility