Male Fertility: It Takes Two, Baby!

Shelley Gawith, Functional Nutrition

It takes two to have a baby; two people who are in good health. It’s not just the women in your lives, men. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really helpful if the lady is in optimal health as she is carrying this precious bundle of joy for nine months as she will be feeding this baby of her nutrients during this time. But pre-conception takes two healthy adults. I have been ranting and raving about the male's role in fertility in clinic to any female that tells me she wants to get pregnant in the foreseeable future. I jump right in and ask them, “Well, how healthy is your partner and what are they doing for their health?” I guess it’s a great marketing tactic and maybe I should change my specialty to couples’ health as I’m lucky enough get a lot of women coming into clinic wanting to get pregnant. Research shows that 30 to 50 percent? of fertility challenges are related to the male partner, it’s rarely talked about what men can do to improve their fertility health. A fun fact for all the males in your lives and for all my male clients: Every time you ejaculate you lose these nutrients: • Zinc- have you done the taste test lately. Can you taste it? • Selenium • Copper As a side note: testosterone, serotonin, acetylcholine and dopamine are also lowered, prolactin is raised after ejaculation.? So, first thing is we want to make sure that males are getting these key nutrients back into their diets and that they are able to digest them. We also want to ensure that their hormones are also balanced, that they are not hiding toxicity in their bodies (especially in their guts, or heavy metals in their fatty tissues) and that they are not sympathetic dominant. The key thing is, you always want to get information about both partners and look at both partners’ health, it’s not just one person! While I love all the women that come in wanting to be in their best health before they have children, we also want the dads in their best health too. Happy baby making!