Infertility
InfertilityConception is supposed to be a pretty simple process. The little egg leaves the ovary to travel down the fallopian tube on its way to the uterus. Somewhere along the way, it encounters a swarm of sperm. Through sheer diligence, one of the tail-flailing sperm manages to make its way into the egg. The fertilized egg then implants itself into the cushiony, blood-lined wall of the uterus. Nine months later, if all goes well, there’s a baby.
It’s not that easy, however, for the 5.3 million American women and their partners who try for 12 months or more to initiate this close encounter of the first kind. For them, the meeting of sperm and egg is a no-show. Often, it’s not clear why the initiation ceremony doesn’t quite come off. About 35 to 40 percent of the time, the problem lies with the male half of the process; about the same percentage of the time, it’s with the female; and about 20 percent of all infertility goes unexplained.
If the infertility problem can be identified, it can sometimes be fixed with surgery. A surgeon can open up a blocked fallopian tube, clearing the way for sperm and egg to meet. A varicose vein in a testicle can also be surgically treated. Blood that backs up in the vein and creates excess heat can cause low sperm counts, but once the varicose vein has been removed and the temperature is regulated, the sperm count might climb back up to normal.
Stress, smoking, alcohol, and a poor diet can also make it difficult to conceive. Sometimes, however, the problem lies with hormone or metabolic imbalances.
Whatever the cause, it can’t hurt to get your hormones and every cell of your body primed for conceiving a child—and that’s where supplements may come in handy. "I’m not saying that if you take these supplements, you’ll definitely conceive," says Jennifer Brett, N.D., a naturopathic doctor at the Wilton Naturopathic Center in Stratford, Connecticut. There’s evidence, however, that taking them can improve your chances, she says.
Vitamin E for Men and Women
Vitamin E can be helpful for both sexes, says Liz Collins, N.D., a naturopathic doctor and co-owner of the Natural Childbirth and Family Clinic in Portland, Oregon. One study showed that giving just 100 to 200 international units (IU) of vitamin E a day to both partners increased fertility, she says.
Vitamin E may help balance hormones. A lot depends on this balance, and a lot can go wrong when hormones are out of sync with the reproductive cycle. When a fertilized egg sets out on its journey to the uterus, for instance, hormones prompt the welcoming committee. If the signals are straight, by the time the egg arrives at its destination, the uterus will be well-lined with blood to nourish the egg during its first growth stages. Lacking that important hormonal signal, the egg may arrive at an unprepared landing site, where it doesn’t stand a chance of thriving. With vitamin E restoring the hormone balance, the fertilized egg may get the nourishment it needs upon arrival in the uterus.
Vitamin E is also a powerful antioxidant. This means that it helps control the damage caused by free-roaming, unstable molecules called free radicals. These unbalanced molecules steal electrons from healthy molecules. When they succeed, the molecule that was robbed is damaged, and damage spreads to the living cell.
Antioxidant vitamins such as E and C help stabilize free radicals and stop their chain of destruction. The vitamins sacrifice their own electrons to the free radicals, which helps prevent the cell-damaging chain reaction. While it’s not entirely clear yet how that antioxidant function improves fertility in women, there are numerous reasons that stabilizing free radicals helps men.
For starters, 40 percent of infertile men have high levels of free radicals in their semen. Their damage causes abnormal sperm cells and low sperm counts.
Results from a study done by researchers from the department of clinical biochemistry at the King Saud University College of Medicine in Saudi Arabia suggest that vitamin E helps improve sperm motility. This means that sperm are better able to make the long swim from the vagina into the uterus and fallopian tube.
In her practice, Dr. Collins recommends that women take up to 500 IU of vitamin E twice a day and men take 200 to 400 IU daily. If you are considering taking amounts of vitamin E over 400 IU, discuss it with your doctor, and be sure to stop taking it as soon as you become pregnant.
Raspberry also seems to have a toning effect that helps women’s reproductive systems function normally. Nowadays, herbalists capitalize on this benefit by recommending raspberry for a variety of women’s problems, such as morning sickness, menstrual cramps, and heavy menstrual bleeding.
Compounds called tannins in the raspberry plant have an astringent quality—that is, they cause some constriction in cells that they come in contact with. When the tannins reach your intestine, they can help reduce inflammation, which is one way to reduce problems like diarrhea.
Raspberry also has some minerals that your body urgently needs to help incorporate liquids into your cells, so taking raspberry can be a good treatment for dehydration. It can give you a boost when thirst is making you feel exhausted.
If you want to give raspberry a try, it’s available at most health food stores in a number of forms—as capsules, tincture, and often tea.
Supplements for Women
For women, the presence of yeast infections can reduce the chances of conception. Yeast infections may thicken vaginal mucus and make it impossible for sperm to get through to do their job, says Dr. Brett. Thus, taking measures against yeast infection is a first step in the right direction.
There’s more. Women should also start taking a good multivitamin, says Dr. Collins. "So many of the nutrients in a multivitamin, especially the B vitamins, can help with infertility," she says. It’s a good idea to see your gynecologist and have her recommend a prenatal vitamin for you, Dr. Collins says. That way you’ll be sure to get all of the necessary nutrients, and if you do become pregnant, the baby will have a solid foundation to build from.
Your prenatal vitamin is sure to have folic acid in it, says Dr. Collins, and that’s another building block. This B vitamin is instrumental in cell division. If an egg does become fertilized, it will need folic acid to start dividing and growing. Folic acid is also important in preventing birth defects of the brain and spinal column.
In one study by researchers in Budapest, Hungary, researchers who gave women 800 micrograms of folic acid a day found that the women conceived more quickly than women who did not take supplements.
If you are thinking about becoming pregnant, just 400 micrograms a day of folic acid should be adequate to prevent some birth defects. It is critically important during the first six weeks of pregnancy and should be taken at least through the first three months, says Aubrey Milunsky, M.D., professor of human genetics, pediatrics, and pathology and director of the center for human genetics at Boston University School of Medicine. It is safe to continue throughout pregnancy, he says.
Herbs for Conception
Apart from vitamins, there are a few herbs that a woman can take to help balance hormones so that conditions are just right for conception. Although they haven’t been proven effective in clinical studies, chasteberry, red raspberry leaf, false unicorn, and red clover are among the herbs to consider if you’re having trouble conceiving, says Dr. Brett. With any of these herbs, she recommends following the dosage directions on the packages. These or similar amounts are effective in helping to balance your hormones, she says. Be sure to stop taking them as soon as you think you might be pregnant, however, since these and other herbs are not recommended during pregnancy.
Of these four hormone-balancing herbs, some act like progesterone and others like estrogen—the two hormones that are essential to reproduction. "To keep the estrogen-to-progesterone balance in order, I usually recommend that women choose one of the herbs that act like progesterone and one that acts like estrogen," says Dr. Brett.
Quickly becoming rare in the wild, false unicorn isn’t something that you’ll find alongside the average forest path. Fortunately, it’s commercially cultivated, and herbalists advise that you stick with brands whose labels state that only the cultivated herb was used.
Perhaps legend can offer some insight into why false unicorn has become such a rarity. It seems that the devil became extremely angry because of the powers of this herb. In a rage, he tried to get rid of the species by biting off every plant at the roots.
Well, he didn’t succeed. Today, false unicorn’s star-shaped flowers still bloom every spring. He did leave his mark, however, because the plant’s roots look as if they’d been chewed. It also bears the diabolical nickname of Devil’s Bite.
A Boost from Two Berries
Chasteberry acts like a mild progesterone, says Dr. Collins. When you take it, you’re lending support to half of the progesterone/estrogen team. If infertility is the result of the estrogen-to-progesterone ratio being out of balance, chasteberry might tip the scales just enough to improve your chances of success.
Chasteberry is especially good for women who are just coming off birth control pills, says Dr. Brett. The pills seriously change your hormone levels to prevent conception. With chasteberry, you can help restore the levels that encourage conception.
This herb is also recommended for women who have had repeated early miscarriages, notes Dr. Collins. Early miscarriages are often the result of a progesterone deficiency. By taking chasteberry to help boost pro gesterone levels, there’s a chance that the herb can help prevent another miscarriage. She recommends the standard dosage, which is 175 to 225 milligrams a day.
Red raspberry leaf is another herb that can be used to increase progesterone levels, says Dr. Brett. It’s a phytoprogesterone, she notes, which is a plant that acts like progesterone in the body. It is also often recommended to pregnant women to calm the uterus. Dosages vary depending on the concentration. For a 400-milligram supplement, a typical dose is one or two capsules two or three times daily at mealtimes.
The Estrogenic Herbs
False unicorn and red clover are herbal supplements for women that can act like weak estrogens in the body. Naturopathic doctors believe that they help balance hormone levels, either making up for a shortfall of estrogen or encouraging your body to excrete excess amounts.
The recommended dosages will vary with each of these herbal supplements, so Dr. Brett recommends following the directions on the packages.
False unicorn may be taken as a tincture or a tea. For either, follow the directions on the label. For tincture, that’s typically 6 to 8 drops taken in a little water two or three times daily. Be aware that false unicorn may cause nausea and vomiting in doses higher than 5 to 15 drops of tincture, ½ cup of infusion, or 3 to 4 cups of tea blend per day.
For red clover, a typical dose for 430-milligram capsules is one or two capsules three times daily with water at mealtimes.
Remember that you should take only two of these four herbs at a time. One balancing pair, for example, is red raspberry leaf, which provides progesterone, and false unicorn, which supplies estrogen. Once you’ve made your choices, take both herbs every day until you know that you’re pregnant, Dr. Brett says.
Supplements for Men
There are many supplements that men can take to improve both sperm counts and sperm motility and to reduce the number of abnormal sperm cells. Among them are the antioxidants vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium and other nutrients such as zinc, arginine, and carnitine.
Selenium and vitamin C work in the same way that vitamin E does, by helping to stop free radical damage. In one small study, researchers in Canada gave selenium and vitamin E supplements to infertile men for six months. With supplementation, the men showed significant increases in sperm motility, percentage of live sperm, and percentage of normal sperm cells. The researchers concluded that these improvements were due to the supplements because all three benefits faded later when the men stopped taking them.
Vitamin C helps to keep sperm cells from clumping together. When sperm cells clump, they aren’t able to move very well. Researchers have found that the chances of fertility are vastly reduced whenever more than 25 percent of sperm cells are stuck together. It’s kind of like trying to make your way through a crowded room: The more dense the crowd, the harder it is to get to the other side.
Counting on C
Vitamin C may also play a role in increasing sperm counts. In one study, researchers selected 30 men who were infertile but had no other health problems and divided them into three groups of 10. One group received 200 milligrams of vitamin C a day, the second was given 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C a day, and the third received pills that looked like the other supplements but didn’t contain vitamin C (placebos).
Researchers measured sperm count, motility, and sperm clumping every week. After one week, the 1,000-milligram group had a 140 percent increase in sperm count. The group getting 200 milligrams had a 112 percent increase. The sperm count of the group taking the placebo didn’t increase at all.
Clumping was influenced, too. When the study began, all three groups of men had more than 25 percent of their sperm cells clumped. After three weeks, clumping was down to 11 percent in the two groups that were supplementing with vitamin C.
For those taking vitamin C, success soon followed. After 60 days, all of the men taking vitamin C had impregnated their wives. Among the group that took no supplements, by contrast, the fertility rate was still zero.
Dr. Brett recommends taking up to 5,000 milligrams of vitamin C in divided doses daily. Since too much vitamin C can cause diarrhea, she recommends starting with 1,000 milligrams a day and increasing the dosage by 1,000 milligrams each week, going all the way to 5,000 milligrams daily if you find that your body can tolerate that amount. Continue until your partner becomes pregnant.
Zinc Positive
Zinc is another good nutrient for infertile men because it can help increase sperm counts and improve sperm motility. Low levels of zinc can decrease production of the male hormone testosterone, which can lead to impaired fertility.
Studies show that most men get between 10 and 15 milligrams of zinc a day, but Dr. Brett recommends 25 milligrams a day for infertile men. With your doctor’s okay, you can take this amount until your partner becomes pregnant, or up to six months.
Arginine and carnitine are two other nutrients to consider, says Dr. Collins. Arginine is an amino acid that your body needs in order to make sperm, while carnitine is a vitamin-like compound that helps sperm function properly.
In one study, researchers found that 74 percent of 178 men with low sperm counts had significantly higher counts and improved motility after taking 4,000 milligrams of arginine daily for at least three months. Dr. Brett recommends taking 1,000 milligrams of arginine twice a day until you know your partner is pregnant.
For carnitine, the optimum dose is 300 to 1,000 milligrams three times a day, Dr. Collins says. It may help improve sperm development, motility, and function. One clinical study in Bologna, Italy, found that 37 of 47 men who supplemented with 1,000 milligrams of carnitine three times a day for three months had improved sperm counts and motility. Since it’s comparatively expensive, however, you might want to try other supplements first.
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