Prior to now, it was popularly believed that infertility is something that affects the woman alone. However, reality has shown to us now that the man is also a culprit especially if he cannot produce healthy, motile, and normal sperm cells.
It is an established fact that conception is a complex process involving the man’s sperm and the woman’s egg. It is also a reality that only one sperm is needed to fertilize the egg of a woman despite the fact that millions are released in a single ejaculate.
Today, a lot of things affect sperm production in men and the statistics have reflected a correlation between our lifestyle changes and the declining state recorded in producing healthy sperm cells.
Drugs (both legal and illegal), alcohol and tobacco can all reduce the health of your spermand the likelihood that you and your partner will conceive. Avoiding these substances so that the body can detox when preparing for pregnancy, will help ensure the sperm you produce are optimally healthy. This will increase your chances of conception, and ensure that the pregnancy gets off to the healthiest start possible.
Smoking reduces your fertilityby affecting the concentration, motility and shape of your sperm. On average, men who smoke have a lower concentration of sperm in their semen. In addition their semen contains a higher concentration of sperm which are immobile (unable to swim) and abnormally shaped. Because of their shape, these sperm may be immotile, but even if they can swim properly, they will have a harder time trying to penetrate and fertilise an egg, compared to normally shaped sperm. There is also some evidence that smoking reduces the quality of DNA in a man’s sperm, and that this may in turn make the children of fathers who smoke around the time of conception, more susceptible to some conditions like childhood cancer.
Alcohol affects the health of dads’ spermby influencing the function of the cells in the testes which produce testosterone and those which are regulated by testosterone to produce sperm. In the long term, heavy drinking has been shown to reduce fertility in men. Those who drink excessively ejaculate a smaller quantity of semen each time, and their semen contains a lower number of sperm compared to men who do not drink heavily. The sperm of heavy drinkers are also less motile.
Recreational drugs have an adverse effect on a man’s fertilityand should be avoided in general but particularly whilst you are trying to conceive. Marijuana and cocaine impair sperm production by affecting the cells in the testes which produce sperm. Heavy marijuana users have lower concentrations of sperm, which may take 2-3 months to recover when the man stops using marijuana. Marijuana also reduces testosterone levelswhich can impair sperm production.
Similarly, cocaine use lowers the concentration of sperm in the semen. It has also been associated with the production of immobile and abnormally shaped sperm. Cocaine use may also increase the likelihood of erectile dysfunction (the inability to achieve and maintain an erection) which indirectly affects fertility.
Opiate drugs such as heroin may also reduce fertilitybecause they have hormone altering effects and decrease libido.
Performance enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids impair fertility because they alter hormone production and reduce libido.
Detoxification and Preconception Supplementation have been proven to help several men deal with male infertility as it helps the body get rid of several of those toxins affecting health sperm production, and also supplying the needed nourishment necessary for healthy sperm production.
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