Diet and exercise tied to chances of fatherhood
A Mediterranean-style diet, which also contains leafy vegetables, pulses and whole grains, can enhance sperm motility by 11%.
This could be especially important for couples who are trying to conceive naturally due the need for sperm to be “strong swimmers”.
The research comes as a separate study found that men who take moderate exercise can also positively impact their sperm motility.
Both studies were presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) conference in Orlando.
In the first, experts from universities including the Harvard School of Public Health, examined the diets of more than 180 men aged 18 to 22.
They split those who ate any Mediterranean-type items into four subsets, from those with the highest intake of these nutrient-rich foods to those with the lowest.
Those in the highest group had an increased sperm motility of 11% compared to the lowest.
Audrey Gaskins, from Harvard’s Department of Nutrition, said: “I think motility is most important for couples who are trying to conceive naturally.”
Dr Edward Kim, from the Society for Reproduction and Urology, said: “There is no doubt that motility is one of the most important parameters that we look at in semen quality.”
In the second study, from experts at Yamaguchi University in Japan, 215 men attending an IVF clinic detailed their exercise habits and gave semen samples.
This was then translated into “metabolic equivalent” hours per week based on the type of exercise, frequency and duration.
Men were given a score based on how much exercise they did.
The group reporting moderate exercise had the highest average sperm motility as well as a significantly lower percentage of men with less than 40% sperm motility (14.3%).
In the lowest exercise group, 30.8% of men had sperm motility under 40% and 27.1% of men who exercised intensely had sperm motility under 40%.
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