Does Acupuncture Help with Male Fertility and Sperm Quality?

One sweeping meta-study about male infertility causes found that the most important causes were related to physiological (genetic and chronic health conditions), lifestyle, environmental, and socio-demographic risk factors.⁴ While acupuncture can’t remove environmental toxins from your home or workplace, nor can it ensure that you’re eating a balanced diet and getting the right kind of exercise (more on that later), research shows that it can support and target things like stress, inflammation, and hormone imbalances caused by those issues. So, acupuncture for male fertility can be a supportive option.

Additional Benefits of Acupuncture

Since male fertility is tied to a man’s overall health generally, it would make sense for a man wanting to father a child to do all he can to boost his health. There is scientific evidence that acupuncture can support both men and women in ways that will reduce stress and inflammation, which can improve fertility generally. For example:

• There is some evidence that acupuncture can help reduce stress and help people adapt better to stressful situations. The stress-relief aspect of acupuncture seems to also help people with hypertension (high blood pressure) issues, which can also impact fertility.⁵
• Other studies suggest that acupuncture may help improve digestion, which can help reduce gastrointestinal stress and improve nutrient absorption, another key issue for improving fertility.⁶
• Acupuncture may help regulate the immune system in individuals with allergies. Allergic individuals have immune systems that overreact to otherwise harmless things in the environment.⁷
• Some studies also demonstrate acupuncture’s therapeutic effect against insomnia. Getting high-quality sleep is important for all the body’s healing and regulation processes, including fertility.⁸

Again, many of these studies suggested that more research was necessary, although positive effects were recorded. That said, the vast majority of studies recorded that acupuncture provided by a skilled, licensed acupuncturist was safe and presented few if any ill side effects. In all cases, acupuncture is a supportive therapy that researchers suggest patients add to overall lifestyle adjustments.

How Else Can a Man Improve His Fertility?

So, while acupuncture for male fertility is still being studied, it’s important to go back to where acupuncture comes from: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In TCM, an illness or condition isn’t just a collection of disconnected symptoms that can be treated one by one, without thought to any other system of the body. In TCM, the body is a whole ecosystem where all systems are deeply interconnected. So, when one part of the body is out of balance, other parts will suffer as a result. On the flip side, when balance is restored in one area, it can help support other areas of overall health too, including fertility. So, acupuncture isn’t just one isolated “fix” for male infertility. It’s a supportive aspect that you can mix with other strategies, including the following lifestyle adjustments:

1. Diet

Both TCM and Western medicine are huge proponents of everyone eating a nutritious diet for good overall health. This goes for fertility too. Recent studies in male fertility and nutrition urge men to eat for fertility by cutting saturated fats and focusing on nutrient-rich foods with good amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, selenium, and coenzyme Q10. In other words, fill your plate with fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins like nuts, seeds, fish, poultry, and low-fat dairy.⁹ Talk to Pulling Down the Moon’s expert fertility nutritionist about individual dietary circumstances and learn ways to give your diet a fertility tune-up.

2. Vitamins

Of course, even if you are eating a super healthy diet, it can be difficult to get all the various nutrients needed to boost fertility. Some studies suggest that supplementing with a mix of important antioxidants, inositol, and L-arginine can help improve sperm parameters and overall fertility.¹⁰ Talk with your doctor and our fertility nutritionist about any digestive issues or health concerns that may be impeding your nutrition absorption, and then discuss potentially adding supplements that can increase levels of nutrients important for fertility that you may not be getting enough of naturally.

3. Exercise

Science shows that it hurts sperm health, not to mention overall health.¹² Once again, improving fertility is about looking at the whole picture of your health. If anything is damaging your health, causing digestive issues, stress, or sexual dysfunction, it’s a good idea to look at ways to remove any barriers to your fertility that exist, whatever they are.

Helping Men Boost Their Fertility in Chicago

Here at Pulling Down the Moon, we are eager to help men and women in their efforts to bring happy, healthy babies into the world. We provide an entire suite of holistic fertility services, including TCM and acupuncture for male fertility (and female fertility) on this journey. Our licensed acupuncturists are true experts in the field and have helped many couples on their path to pregnancy. Schedule an appointment with us today.