With so much sperm per ejaculate, it seems that sperm quality would hardly matter in infertility. A healthy male discharges 50 million sperm in one ejaculation. During sexual intercourse, of all those millions of sperm, only a couple hundred will make it to a mature egg that is ready to be fertilized. But 40% of infertility is from the male, including males who passed the semen analysis tests. The average sperm count today is between 20 and 40 million per milliliter in the Western world, having decreased by 1-2% per year from Continue reading Twenty factors that affect male fertility→
There are many ways herbs can help a couple deal with fertility. A simple red clover infusion can kick off a pregnancy for many women. Herbalists can make specific formulas for the five parts of the menstrual cycle identified by Chinese medicine or more simply incorporate menstrual charting with formulas, using herbs to tonify the yin or yang phases of the menstrual cycle as needed. One may even managed to open a blocked fallopian tube with a phlegm stasis formula. Or reduce insulin resistance in PCOS. Or improve sperm quality and motility in the male partner. Or use flower essences with a frightened first time mother. We can even use plants to deal with the residues of sexual abuse so that a prospective mother can embrace her fertility.
Women who eat at least one portion of high-fat dairy food per day have more productive ovulation, by 27% than women who eat low-fat dairy. Women who eat 2 servings or more of low fat dairy have 85% more ovulation-related infertility. Is it the dairy, the fat, or a combination?
”The risk of anovulatory infertility was found to be 27 percent lower in women who ate at least one portion of high-fat dairy food per day compared with women who had one high-fat serving of dairy per week, or even less. Women who ate two or more portions of lowfat dairy foods a day increased their risk of ovulation related infertility by 85 percent.” Human Reproduction 2007;doi:10.1093/humrep/dem019.
Butter, A Source of CLA
We live in a world where low fat is treated as the holy grail of health, yet we forget that fats and fats alone contain certain essential nutrients, including those used to form hormones used in reproduction. The fat from pasture-raised cows contain has as much as five times the CLA (a fatty acid which is a potent anti-cancer agent, muscle builder, and immunity booster) as fat from grain-fed cows. The Omega 3 essential fatty acids are found in similar proportions to deep sea fish. Grass-fed milk contains rumenic acid (a CLA), DHA, vaccenic acid,branched chain fatty acids, butyric acid, lecithin, cysteine-rich wheyproteins, calcium, iodine and vitamin D all of which have value from reducing cancer to increasing fertility. Continue reading Full Fat Dairy Helps Ovulation in the Infertile→
It is well known that insulin resistance is the basis of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) which is a major cause of infertility, but insulin resistance affects other infertility conditions as well.
Many infertility doctors are aware of this. I had one, non PCOS, client whose fertility doctor prescribed Metformin, a diabetes drug that improves insulin sensitivity, but failed to suggest to her that she had blood sugar problems (at a stage in her life where she might be able to make changes to avoid diabetes.) Doctors routinely suggest weight loss for infertility which is also known to correct insulin resistance.
