If you’re a man or a person assigned male at birth (AMAB) and want to conceive, you need to make sure you have a decent sperm count. Because, you know, your sperm plays a pretty significant role in creating a baby. Low sperm count, or oligospermia, is an issue many face when it comes to male fertility. If you don’t have enough high-quality sperm, the chances of at least one sperm cell surviving the journey to the uterus are low, making it much harder to conceive.
Low sperm count, or oligospermia, is an issue many face when it comes to male fertility. Here's the solution.
If you’re concerned about your “little swimmers,” continue reading to discover the things that impact the average number of sperm cells in your semen and how a few lifestyle adjustments may help you increase your sperm count.
What is a healthy sperm count?
To determine whether someone has a low sperm count, we need a comparison point — the number of sperm in a "healthy" load of semen.
The average sperm count for men and people AMAB is between 20 and 150 million sperm per millimeter (mL). Anybody whose semen has less than 15 million sperm per mL per ejaculation has a low sperm count.
Factors Affecting Sperm Count
Before learning how to increase sperm count, you have to understand what's making it low the first place. Here are some things that can influence your sperm count:
Diet
What you eat can impact your sperm count. A diet consisting primarily of processed meat, fatty dairy, coffee, alcohol, sugary drinks, sweets, and potatoes has been linked to poor semen quality and reduced fertility.
Age
As you age, your sperm quality, and your sperm count, can decline. Research reveals that men and AMAB folks between the ages of 41 and 50 were 2.92 times more likely to have decreased total sperm counts than those between the ages of 21 and 30.
The rate significantly increases among people AMAB older than 50, who are 6.15 times more likely than the younger age groups to have a low sperm count.
Medical conditions
There are several medical conditions tied to a low sperm count and/or male infertility, including:
- Sexual dysfunction, including erectile dysfunction, retrograde ejaculation, hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, and anejaculation
- Testicular disorders, such as testicular tumors, primitive testicular dysfunction, and cryptorchidism (occurs when a testicle doesn’t move down into the scrotum)
- Klinefelter syndrome, a genetic condition where men or people AMAB have an extra X chromosome.
- Prolactinoma, a noncancerous tumor of the pituitary gland.
Alcohol Consumption
While there’s nothing wrong with a drink now and then, daily alcohol consumption could be affecting your sperm count. According to a narrative review, men who drink alcohol daily can have worsened semen quality, particularly in semen volume (sperm count) and sperm morphology.
Cigarette Smoking
Smoking cigarettes is a known risk factor for male infertility, as it can reduce your sperm quality, leading to a lower sperm count and poor sperm motility (the ability of your sperm to move or swim through the cervix into the uterus for fertilization).
One study found that male smokers had a total sperm count that was 17.7 million mL lower than male non-smokers.
Sperm Quality vs. Sperm Count
While they seem similar, sperm quality and sperm count are two totally different things.
“Sperm quality relates to whether sperms have normal shapes and forms, as well as their DNA quality,” says Deborah Maguire, the Senior Fertility Nurse at Apricity. “Sperm count focuses on the number of sperm present.”
Sperm quality is an umbrella term for the following aspects of your semen:
- The mobility of sperm (sperm mobility or sperm activity)
- The shape of your sperm (sperm morphology)
- The volume of your sperm (sperm count)
- DNA health
How to Increase Sperm Count
Now we come to the big question. How can you increase your sperm count if it's low? Well, the good new is there are actually a few relatively easy things you can do.
“While it’s quite normal for sperm quality to vary from month to month, good nutrition and lifestyle habits can help build a solid foundation for overall sperm quality,” Maguire says.
Now, let's get more specific about what you can do to increase your sperm count:
Make some lifestyle changes
- Maintain a healthy weight: Diet and regular exercise can help you maintain a healthy body mass index (BMI) and increase your sperm count and volume.
- Practice stress management: Because stress can negatively impact your sperm quality, consider lowering your stress levels by practicing mindfulness meditation (e.g., deep breathing, yoga, prayer), getting active, and journaling.
- Get a good night’s rest: If you’re not catching enough (or getting too many) Zs at night, you could reduce your number of little swimmers. Aim to get between 7 ½ and 8 hours of sleep, as this is the optimal amount of sleep for normal semen quality.
- Avoid smoking and drinking alcohol: Because cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption are tied to poor semen quality, it’s best to quit smoking (consider smoking cessation) and also stop drinking alcohol or consume it in moderation.
Change your diet
Consider eating certain foods and eliminating others to positively impact your sperm count.
“Higher intakes of processed foods have been linked with poorer sperm quality,” Maguire says. “The Mediterranean diet has shown the best outcomes in sperm quality, so including more organic fruits and vegetables and whole grains, legumes, oily fish, and nuts into your meals and snacks is a great starting point.”
Consider some supplements
Certain supplements can be a natural path to increasing the number of sperm in your semen and their quality.
Consider trying these:
- D-aspartate: D-aspartate is a naturally occurring amino acid found in the nervous and reproductive systems. One study found that taking D-aspartate supplements increased sperm motility and concentration in 30 male patients.
- Fenugreek: Fenugreek is a herb that's a natural remedy for improving semen activity, including sperm count and morphology.
- Zinc: Zinc is an essential mineral naturally found in certain foods but is also available as a dietary supplement. Research shows that zinc supplementation can increase your daily sperm production.
- Vitamin C: Also known as L-ascorbic acid, vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that may improve sperm count, motility, and morphology.
- Vitamin D: Vitamin D is another essential nutrient that, when taken as supplement, may positively impact sperm quality.
Before you buy these supplements at your local grocery store or pharmacy, consult with your healthcare provider to ensure they are safe for your body and don't interfere with any other medications you're taking.
Medical Interventions
If you’ve tried various natural remedies and supplements to increase your sperm count but aren’t noticing any changes, it might be time to see a specialist. They can recommend treatments that can help you produce healthy sperm.
“Treatments can include surgery, such as for varicocele or vasectomy reversal, as well as medication and support for erectile dysfunction or premature ejaculation,” Maguire says.
There are also fertility treatments you can pursue if you want to conceive artificially.
“Assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments obtain sperm through ejaculation, surgical extraction, or from donors, which is then inserted into the female genital tract,” Maguire explains. “It can also be used for in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).”
The Bottom Line
No one wants to shoot blanks when trying to conceive. While a low sperm count can be an indicator of male infertility, there are ways to increase your sperm count through lifestyle changes or medical treatments.
Many couples go through infertility challenges for a variety of reasons. Know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel! If you need further guidance on low sperm count, please speak with a licensed medical professional.
