Celebrity Save Our Sperm: Why is our Male Sperm Count so Low

As male fertility rates plummet, Russell Kane, Melvin Odoom and Ollie Locke unite in a ballsy attempt to increase their sperm count. Can they rise to the challenge and prevent spermageddon?

Endometriosis: ‘Women's Problems’ and Fertility Nightmare

March is always Endometriosis Awareness Month, but sufferers of this particularly complex and distressing condition are more than ‘aware’ of it. It hits full on every month, causing everything from pain on ovulation, to bad period pain, to excruciating period pain, often accompanied by diarrhoea, vomiting and fainting. Strong pain is incredibly debilitating and of course heavy bleeding may also cause iron loss and anaemia. I have just read a study looking at the economic burden of endometriosis, and suffice to say it costs a lot of money! And for my clients it is a huge risk factor for infertility. It is a very complex condition, probably genetic, involving the immune system; auto-immunity may play a role, hormonal, driven by oestrogen, and highly inflammatory.

But endometriosis is also widely misdiagnosed; after all teenage girls always exaggerate everything specially to get off games, “just take a painkiller and live with it, it’s all part of being a woman”, and the ultimate irony, “it’ll get better when you are pregnant”. Great, just what you want to hear. Women become enormously resigned to the pain, and it can take until there are fertility investigations for endometriosis to be diagnosed, never mind treated.

For those of you who are unsure what endometriosis actually is . . .

It is defined as the presence of endometrial (womb/uterine) tissue that can grow anywhere in the pelvic cavity, outside of the endometrium and is responsive therefore to all the hormonal fluctuations of a monthly menstrual cycle. This tissue then induces a chronic inflammatory response causing the pain associated with the condition. Blood filled endometrial cysts known as ‘chocolate cysts’, may form on the ovaries and inflamed lesions cause scarring, which then tugs and pulls on the organs where the endometriosis has formed, like the ovaries, fallopian tubes, bowels and bladder.

How and why some women have endometriosis is a bit of a mystery. In terms of risk to health, as we have just mentioned, endometriosis affects fertility. The adhesions can cause scarring in the fallopian tubes, and they become blocked and the chronic long-term inflammation causes high levels of oxidative stress, free radicals that damage the cells of the ovaries, ovarian reserve and egg quality. It is speculated (but controversial) that high levels of cytokines and NK cells may also be associated with the potential autoimmune component of endometriosis as well. So, what to do about it? Well, researchers have identified several diet and lifestyle risk factors that may be involved.  So, when my clients come to see me, they are often on the way to IVF and this preparatory stage is very important.

Three months preparation is ideal, until egg collection, where we can reduce the inflammation to the developing follicles and give them a fighting chance. I usually recommend a very plant- based diet for my clients, with the only non-plant foods coming from a little chicken or turkey and fish and some eggs; the rest is from pulses, seeds and nuts and lots of vegetables. A little organic tofu is fine in my opinion, two meals a week is not going to cause harm, in fact the phytoestrogens in soy may even protect the cells from more pathogenic forms of oestrogen.  And one or two soya-based meals a week will not harm sperm either.

GLUTEN

There is now some good evidence linking gluten-avoidance with relieving some of the symptoms of endometriosis. And I do always recommend avoiding it, if possible. Gluten may ‘switch on’ oestrogen modulating genes, and some specialists recommend avoiding wheat in the second half of the cycle and during a period, as this also seems to alleviate pain. Nowadays, it is not so difficult to avoid it and it’s worth giving it a go.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

These are one of the food groups that I recommend cutting down on for my clients with endometriosis. Dairy products (probably due to both the oestrogens and the growth factors in milk) may play a role in driving the condition. But to be honest it’s hard to find evidence that supports this, which is why I recommend a little but low fat, dairy. So, try and have no more than one portion of low-fat organic dairy a day if you want to eat it. (not full fat for endo).

But if you are planning to do IVF, then the time to go with FULL fat dairy is from the beginning of stimulation, until egg collection. Those oestrogens and growth factors may have a positive effect on follicle and egg development.

RED MEAT

This is a food that I would recommend avoiding with endometriosis, mainly due to the presence of both dioxins (see below) and inflammatory compounds in meat. You may have it once a week, but ensure it is organic and lean.

DIOXINS

Dioxins are environmental chemicals and in early animal studies one in particular stood out called TCCD, which appeared to be very strongly associated with a worsening of endometriosis. But at the time hospital studies on humans failed to confirm this link. However, no we know so much about epigenetics, the way that genes are expressed (or not) according to environmental factors, the association between dioxin exposure and endometriosis in women with an individual susceptibility, appears to be a very real factor. This is all very well, but how can you avoid them? Well, it’s a bit difficult because these industrial chemical pollutants are everywhere, in our air, water and soil. But it is believed that 90% of human exposure comes from food, mainly fatty animal products (dioxins are stored in animal fat). 

And even common chemicals that we come in contact with every day are dioxins; chlorine is one, which is in everything from tea bags to sanitary products as bleach, so just go for unbleached like Clipper tea bags and organic sanitary wear. I always advise my clients not to use tampons, it seems so counterintuitive to the flow of blood, almost like blocking it and sending it backwards, increasing the painful contractions that are trying to get rid of it. But the research does not show that tampon use affects endo, in fact there is some that indicates that tampon use is helpful, I have no idea why myself! But I would suggest always using unbleached, as above, anyway. Or even better, washable organic cotton pads, which I think can be more absorbent than disposable towels. There are lots of different brands around.

Reducing all environmental chemicals is a good idea too; from parabens in toiletries, to the chemicals in cleaning products, scented candles, air fresheners, and plastics. Go BPA free with plastics; use glass bottles, reduce tinned foods, use a bamboo BPA-free sustainable take-out coffee/tea cup like Clipper. Eat organic as much as you can, especially whole grains, eggs, tomatoes and peppers and root vegetables, chicken and salmon (or wild).

In terms of supplements, omega three fatty acids are extremely anti-inflammatory and blood thinning, helping to reduce the painful clots. A plant compound called Resveratrol has been well researched for its benefits on endometriosis, as is N-Acetyl Cysteine and of course turmeric, or curcumin. And magnesium to help with the pain.

Exercise is beneficial, so don’t stop moving, even during your period. And sitting down all day is just terrible for endometriosis.

Heat from a hot water bottle or a hot pad that you just stick on under your clothes (From Boots), warm castor oil packs (a very old- fashioned remedy), herbs like agnus-castus and cramp bark (best sorted by a herbalist), acupuncture and reflexology also can really help.

And believe it or sexual intercourse during a period may actually be helpful; with both female orgasm and the highly anti-inflammatory compounds in semen called prostaglandins reducing the pain. I’ll leave that one with you! 

Think of this as a three-month preparatory time so those eggs can be the best quality they can be, and you may reduce the pain as well.

Covid-19 Vaccines & Fertility

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PODCAST: Does a lack of sleep affect my fertility? with Fertility Podcast

This episode has a slightly unusual intro as I had to record it whilst driving, my recorder was safely stored in my glove compartment or whatever the bit in the middle is, by the handbreak.. it does affect the quality a bit, so I apologise. However I’m just back from Fertility Fest and needed to go and pick up my son and get this episode finished.. Hence the need to multi task. You’ll hear a quick chat from Jessica Hepburn from Fertility Fest who I did an insta live with after the session to day (Sunday 28th April) and I’ve lifted the audio, seeing Lives dissapear.. again a slight quality issue. I also wanted you to get to watch the Fertility Fight Club live stream which you can do so here 

Melanie Brown

Now onto my guest. Meet Melanie Brown, a fertility nutritionist and former guest on this podcast. I wanted to speak with Mel after I saw her post this on her instagram

So I wanted to know more. Now, this chat was back in January, so Mel does refer to it being dark in the afternoons and getting lighter (don’t get confused if you’re listening in April when I’ve released it).

Mel was keen to know about the effects of circadian rhythms on your fertility and whether it can affect it. We spoke about how it’s been known for a long time that shift workers, stewardess and pilots have menstrual irregularities and that there is a great deal of evidence that fertility is diminished. 

But what about the rest of us, working normal hours. Does it affect us? Well it seems it does.

The luteinizing hormone that surges mid-cycle is under the 24-hour body clock control so disturbances could affect ovulation and uterine receptivity. 

If implantation doesn’t happen, despite embryos being quality and blastocyst… everything is done to receive the embryo (scratch, washes then we need to start to consider the stress  on the body from  sleep deprivation affecting uterine receptivity

There was also discussion about TNF Alpha – related to Natural killer cells being linked to sleep stress pathway. 

Mel explained how she always recommend my clients use a SAD lamp as there is evidence that getting 20 min of natural daylight in the morning before 9am can have an extremely positive effect and can set your master clock

Did you know that IVF success rates are lower in the winter,  higher in the spring and summer

I think it’s also to do with you get up in the dark, go to work in the dark, artificial light and she spoke about 

Mel spoke about the benefits of melatonin and how in order to prepare to go to sleep, make sure you are not in a bright bedroom, checking your phone and then turning off the light and hoping to go to sleep

We spoke about Sleep Hygiene. Warm bed cold room… we evolved to sleep in cold temperatures having the heating on in the winter is bad for our sleep

We spoke about whether the sleep before midnight more valuable than after and how its the quantity of sleep. If you go after midnight you’re more likely to get less sleep

 The cut-off point for sleep damage is UNDER 6 hours

Did you know you can do SLEEP CATCH up at the weekend it’s been discovered you can… just do it for one night… it’s quite technical so have a listen to how Mel explains it, but do remember that sleep is our wear and repair time and we try and we might to get out of it… we can’t do it. Remember that the environment that interrupts our sleep, so use blackout blinds and earbuds.

Women with diminished ovarian research are 30 times more likely to have disturbed sleep? 

Mel gave great advice on how to approach sleep when you are going through IVF… sometimes it’s easier to think of it as a project. I know I did like it was a science experiment. Mel said ‘You have to think – I have to be in bed for at least 7 hours, so I have some spare time to get back to sleep and I’m not going to get anxious. It’s like school nights you’re getting as much sleep as you can. If you don’t get enough sleep something else will give – the immune system you have to take the best care of yourself and sleep is an essential part of that…”

Do have a listen to my previous chat with Mel about how a Mediterranean diet can really benefit male fertility here