Yes and no. There are not many very big clinical trials to demonstrate that supplements of any kind improves health overall but there is some some evidence to suggest that if samples are poor qualities, poor sperm quality where a sperm has really high DNA damage levels of fragmentation, that if a patient goes away and takes vitamin E or other supplements that can reduce what’s known as reactive oxygen species within the semen or dietary reactive oxygen species, if they take supplements to reduce those, that can improve the DNA quality of the sperm and that’s been shown to have some impact or some positive impact. There are other dietary supplements such as zinc which is important for the sperm head and sperm DNA as well but all of these should be taken with caution that the most important part of any healthy endeavor is a balanced diet with good leafy greens and a good mixer, a diet of foods, fresh foods etc and supplementation should only be taken when really you know there’s no other way of getting those nutrients from a dietary source but there is slight evidence to suggest that it might improve sperm quality but take a precaution.
The data control about these supplements is unfortunately still controversial. When a person checks his semen analysis, we can see, for example, low concentration for the first test and then we try to explain that you need to exclude hot procedures, sauna, lifting in the gym and something like that – this will work and the next test will be better. Of course, every person tries to take some pill to improve his chances and some supplements can help us, I think just to calm our patients.
There are different types of supplements, such as prenatals which are in essence a multivitamin that are optimised for fertility. Then we have other different supplements such as coenzyme Q10, inositol, elsistine, which are other commonly taken supplements. All women who are trying to conceive are recommended to take a prenatal supplement. In terms of the other supplements, it depends on you, what may be deficient in your diet, what area of fertility that you are trying to work on as certain supplements work on certain things. So if you’re unsure about which supplement may be right for you, I would suggest going to see a dietitian or a fertility nutritionist who will be able to scope this out for you.
