Researchers from a German University have found that exercise may help to improve sperm quality.
Behzad Maleki of Justus-Liebig University and his colleagues found that men who engage in moderate exercise between three and five times a week improve their sperm count and quality, according to a new study published in
Reproduction.
With many couples struggling to conceive due to male fertility problems, the current advice for men to improve their chances of conceiving is to combine healthy eating with regular exercise while reducing alcohol consumption and giving up smoking. Although IVF offers hope to many couples who are unable to conceive naturally, using poor quality sperm may increase the risk of miscarriage, birth defects and the development of childhood cancer.
This latest study set out to investigate if the time men spend exercising and the intensity at which they work out has an impact on sperm quality. The researchers looked at 261 healthy men, between 25 and 40 years of age. Men who did more than 25 minutes of exercise more than three days a week were excluded from participating. Semen samples were taken before, during, and after various exercise regimens to assess the men's semen volume, sperm count, morphology, motility, and their response to oxidative stress.
The researchers assigned each man to one of four groups: moderate intensity continuous training (MICT), high intensity continuous training (HICT), high intensity interval training (HIIT), or to a control group that did no exercise. Maleki and his colleagues found that men in all exercise groups had improved sperm quality across the board when compared to the control group. The MICT exercise group showed the biggest improvements in sperm quality with 21.8% more sperm cells on average; they also maintained these benefits for longer.
Unfortunately, the benefits to sperm count, shape and concentration began to drop back down to pre-exercise levels after a week of stopping the training, and sperm motility also dropped thirty days after stopping. The link between exercise and sperm quality has proved to be controversial over the years with other studies showing that strenuous exercise may negatively impact sperm quality.
Dr. Peter Schlegel, vice president of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, spoke to
Time magazine about the new findings:
"This fits reasonably well with what we thought about the effects of exercise. But this is a much better done study than almost anything that’s been done before on the subject."
The expert says that most previous studies did not randomly assign people to exercise groups and compare the outcome on sperm quality, but instead recorded sperm measures among men who reported their exercise habits after the fact.
Regular exercise reduces the risk of major illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, type two diabetes, cancer by up to 50% and the risk of early death by up to 30%. So healthier sperm is just one more reason to encourage your man to lace up those runners!
Do you have a fertility story you'd like to share? Email Alison.Bough@herfamily.ie with your experience.
