Male Infertility

Although exact statistics are difficult to gather, male infertility is estimated to make up as much as 40% of all infertility cases. There have been reports that show the rise in the number of ‘functionally sterile’ men to be 15 fold compared to the 1930’s. ‘Functionally sterile’ means sperm counts below 20 million per millilitre of sperm.

Male infertility is so easy to overlook. The expectation can be that once the woman receives sperm, if she doesn’t get pregnant there must be something wrong with her. The fact is that in the vicinity of 40% of cases the problem will be a male one.

There are many lifestyle factors that have been shown in numerous studies to be detrimental to sperm quality and quantity. Smoking, pesticides and car exhaust fumes are to name but a few. Most people realise that what we eat does impact on health. Further more those health impacts often run much wider and deeper than we might think.

Do you or your partner eat foods that contain MSG (Monosodium Glutamate)? Almost everybody has heard of MSG and knows it to be far from a health promoting ingredient in our foods. MSG is very common and is found in foods such as flavoured potato chips, soups, some meats and a variety of other packaged foods.

MSG has been studied in animals and shown to cause infertility problems. Pregnancy success rates as high as 92% were recorded in animals whose male partners were fed diets free of MSG. Those whose male partners consumed MSG had less than a 50% success rate.

Certain animals are used in these types of studies due to similar characteristics to the way the human body functions. However, even if you thought the study results were questionable in terms of animals versus humans why would you take the risk? Human males would be wise to take heed of this information and avoid MSG laden foods when trying to conceive.

There are many other lifestyle factors to address in regards to male infertility but concentrating on those things that are easier to control, such as the foods you eat, is a great place to start.