Diet and nutrition are essential factors in getting your body ready for making a baby, and it turns out what male partners consume matters, too. Fertility diets aren't just for women. Certain foods could potentially increase sperm count and quality, while others can cause damage. And if you didn't know, a man is considered to have a low sperm count if he has fewer than 39 million sperm per ejaculation. It sounds like a lot, but considering how far they have to travel, it's not that many.
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Sperm count or total sperm count refers to the average total number of sperm present in one sample of semen. Sperm count is one of the several qualities that are assessed during routine semen analysis and is considered an important factor for fertility. Based on the most current World Health Organization guidelines , a healthy sperm count is 15 million per milliliter ml or at least 39 million per sample. A sperm count lower than 10 million per ml is considered abnormal and commonly associated with male infertility. Anything that impacts the hormones that control the production of sperm or acts as an anti-oxidant may aid the healthy development of sperm and help improve sperm count. Overall, factors that influence testosterone levels are thought to have the most significant impact on sperm number and quality. For several decades, researchers have known that sperm quality and fertility rates have been in decline in most Western nations.
If you buy something through a link on this page, we may earn a small commission. How this works. Healthy sperm are an important factor in male fertility.
Infertility in men is usually the result of a low sperm count. According to the World Health Organization, a sperm count of over 15 million per milliliter is considered healthy, and a count below that is abnormal 1. Male infertility associated with low sperm count is linked to vitamin or zinc deficiency, which means that a few dietary changes could help shoot up the sperm count. MomJunction has put together the best fertility foods you should take if trying to conceive. Sometimes, the quality of the sperm also has an impact on fertility.