“Of course men can improve their fertility!” Five lifestyle tips

There is a growing body of evidence that lifestyle is very important to reproductive health for both men and women. For men, it's not just about what you weigh, but also about how you became overweight. Fertility is the canary in the coalmine of human biology. If there is an underlying health problem it is likely to have an effect on fertility. Thankfully, the quality of your sperm improves as your health does.

Five tips which can help you to improve your chances of fertility:

• Lose weight: Losing weight increases testosterone levels, and some studies show that this alone can improve sperm production.
• A Mediterranean-type diet: Ensuring an intake of vegetables with antioxidant properties, improves sperm quality.
• Remember that sperm require lower temperatures to thrive: As you increase your exercise regimes to try to lose weight, remember that wearing lycra, and cycling, using a sauna or steam room, or exercising strenuously for longer than 30 mins at a time, could be counter-productive.
• Don’t smoke or vape: Smoking, and probably even vaping, definitely affects sperm quality - we are now able to look more closely at the DNA in sperm, so that we are beginning to understand what damages sperm, and therefore how to improve sperm quality.
• Avoid recreational drugs, steroids and some body-building supplements: As many of these suppress sperm production.

Many men may have had minor, non-specific, and seemingly irrelevant urethral or other infections, and often these asymptomatic and undetected conditions can be treated with consequent improvement in male fertility. Finally a message for all men worried about fertility… Never just accept that nothing can be done! See an expert urologist if have any more questions or are worried about your fertility.