4x is a large jump, is that referring to sperm count? It might be anecdata but given that you were seeing a fertility specialist it could be more valuable to hear your lifestyle changes rather than much of the noise that is out there.
They test a number of things from total count, count per ml, motility, correctness of shape. Everything went up. The shape was my main issue and that was the thing that increased 4X
I should say I also took some supplements too.
The problem with all this is isolating your variables - since you’re on a very limited clock and sperm tests cost £200 you don’t have time or money to figure out which things made the most difference. You just try everything and hope you got some of the right things.
All the things I listed above have some evidence for them affecting sperm so I just cut them all out.
Micro plastics was hard since you kinda have to choose between bottled water or tap water! We got a water filter for this one.
Heat meant loose underpants and no warm baths ever.
Teflon- easy. Replace with a carbon steel pan. Improve your chef skills AND sperm!
Western diet is basically high sugar and refined carbs. Just didn’t eat anything with refined sugar on the label in any amount whatsoever (I lost weight fast)
also switched to organic meat and dairy to minimise antibiotics. Can’t say if that made any difference but at least I was being nicer to animals
Is that enough?
I keep reading about how microplastics can be too small for a carbon filter and that you would need a reverse osmosis device, to completely remove plastics.
I can't say am really sold on using a device with a plastic membrane to completely remove plastics.
All the online materials on the topic are for the majority just product placements, it feels very disorienting to be able to make a data driven decision. Do you have any insight.
It must have been enough since his sperm count increased 4x, no?
Either the filter worked or microplastics don't effect sperm count much.
“Something changed, therefore this must be the reason” is a fallacy if there isn’t additional supporting evidence.
That said. If I lived in a village that was attacked by tigers regularly for 6 months, and I installed a tiger filter which stopped the attacks, I would gladly pay 30 bucks for that ($30 is what a faucet water filter costs).
Disclaimer: I don't own a water filter or a tiger filter.
Examples:
- Pizza sauce from crushed tomatoes, tomato puré and spices.
- Marinade for marinating meat from spices and olive oil and either balsamic vinegar or lime.
- Pick my own blueberries that I freeze and put in plain yoghurt.
I just ate a lot of vegetables and meat. Old school diet!
Plus like the comment below, just making things from scratch. Often they taste just as good - the sugar was just in there because they used cheap / unripe ingredients that don't taste of anything.
Micro plastics have been found in the muscle tissue of ocean fish[1].
Micro plastics are everywhere, not just in water bottles.
[1]https://adfpi.org/2020/04/15/microplastic-particles-identifi...
Which ones? Our specialist recommended CoQ10
Also, in case it comes up in the future, doing you own sperm counts on a microscope isn’t that hard. I didn’t bother with morphology and the like as that was typically fine, but total counts are easy.
The reason why is pretty obvious, I'm overweight so I'm aromatising more. Taking clomid blocks the estrogen negative feedback loop in the hypothalamus, so you make more GnRH, so therefore more LH/FSH.
The whole endocrine disruption thing seems pretty sketchy to me. If you're infertile and/or have low testosterone, chances are your diet and lifestyle are horrible.