MALE FERTILITY

There is now much evidence to show that the sperm count among men in Europe and North America is falling – the average in 2005 was approximately one quarter of that in 1925.

Environmental factors are largely considered responsible for this, including pollution. However, many experts agree that lifestyle (alcohol, cigarettes, diet, exercise, plus stress and overwork) also plays a significant part in this fall. In addition, just as with women, the age of a man can affect fertility and many men are trying to become fathers later in life than in the past.

Difficulty conceiving.

Against this background, many couples are having difficulty in conceiving when they try for a baby. This difficulty is as likely to be caused by a problem with the man's fertility (35%) as it is by the woman's fertility (35%). Many couples both choose to have treatment in order to improve their chances of conceiving.

Male fertility: what should happen.

Male fertility is relatively simple. Either you have enough healthy sperm to ensure fertilisation or you do not. The key word is ‘healthy'. There are several different ways in which a man's sperm needs to be healthy.

•  Volume of semen, the liquid in which the sperm are carried. It helps to protect the sperm, but the sperm only make up 1%? of this. There should be at least one millilitre (ml) when you ejaculate.

•  Quantity of sperm, usually expressed in millions per ml. At least 20 million per ml at each ejaculation are needed for fertilisation to occur.

•  Motility of the sperm, the ability of the sperm to swim vigorously and purposefully (in a forward direction). 50% should be motile.

•  Morphology: this is the number of normally shaped sperm. More than 14% should be normal forms, i.e. no deformities of head, midpart or tail.

What we can do.

Men can benefit from acupuncture just as much as women if they are shown to be subfertile. Evidence shows that we can use acupuncture to improve both the quantity and quality of the sperm you produce. Specifically we can help to:

•  increase the quantity of semen you produce at each ejaculation

•  increase the number of sperm per ml. in your semen sample

•  increase the motility of your sperm

•  increase your percentage of normally formed sperm

Acupuncture treatment is appropriate where any or all of the above are needed. We can also make a difference if you have lowered fertility due to previous illness (e.g. mumps), trauma, or conditions such as undescended testicle. Acupuncture can be used to improve the quality of the sperm especially where this is borderline.

We target our treatment towards:

•  Regulating the qi system of your whole body; this supports and supplements the energy you use to make sperm.

•  Promoting qi circulation to your lower abdomen and testicles; by doing this we can help to improve the blood circulation to your testicles which in turn helps your sperm production.

•  Strengthening the function of your Kidney qi (the constitutional basis of sperm production).

Treatment programme.

Treatment involves 12 treatments over the course of 12 weeks, i.e. weekly. In the case of couples undertaking IVF/ICSI or IUI, the last treatment should be just before you produce your sperm for the procedure. We will need to conduct an initial consultation with you lasting 1-1¼hrs. Subsequent treatments will be 40mins.

No needles are inserted into your penis or testicles . We will want to needle your lower abdomen, i.e. below the navel, in addition to wrists, lower legs and feet. An average of ten needles are used at each treatment.

Advice on diet, exercise and, if necessary, relaxation and stress reduction are all included in the programme. Chinese herbal pills may also be prescribed if necessary.