Should Men Take Prenatal Vitamins?
By Dr. Jennifer Fitzgerald, Bird&Be Director of Integrative Medicine
For a lot of women and people with eggs, one of the first to-dos when thinking about having a baby is to get going on a prenatal vitamin. But what about a partner with sperm?
Sperm makes up half an embryo's DNA, but often gets overlooked in the fertility equation. It’s estimated that the “male factor” plays a role in 35 to 50 percent of infertility cases, so it’s key to optimize sperm as much as possible.
Compared to eggs, sperm are teeny. Unfortunately, that makes sperm vulnerable to nutrient deficiencies and toxins, which can stem from air pollution, pesticides and medications and are known to wreak havoc on DNA.
Thankfully, you can lean on prenatal ingredients like Methylated Folate, Zinc, CoQ10 and Vitamins B12 and C to help protect against this damage. Many of these goodies are multitaskers, too. For example, Zinc is needed for testosterone production, testicular growth, sperm production, motility, semen volume and it also reduces excess estrogen.
So when’s the right time to start? Sperm takes about 75 days to mature (and even more according to some studies), and all vitamins and minerals are needed along the way for healthy swimmers.
That’s why it’s a good idea for people with sperm to add a daily supplement to their routine three months before you start trying to conceive. (To make it super easy for you and your partner to get your daily doses, we pack our doctor-backed formulas into once-a-day sachets.)
To round out that new healthy-sperm habit, layer in these positive lifestyle changes, too:
Cut smoking and excessive drinking
Avoid overheating the testes (skip the super-hot baths and mega long bike rides)
Keep hydrated
Eat a healthy diet
Aim for a healthy weight
Control stress
Get enough sleep
Adopt a strength-training routine
Control diabetes
Ejaculate regularly
