Personal
Lubricant Choices Affect Male Fertility
By David Picella
While scientific studies continue to tout the benefits of technology
in assisted reproduction, relatively little is known about natural
methods of fertility enhancement. The importance of the cervical
mucus environment and it’s affects on the function of male
spermatozoa is underappreciated. In the absence of cervical mucus,
or in the case of vaginal dryness, couples frequently resort to
personal lubricants.
In recent studies, some
of the commonly recommended lubricants, like KY®, Astroglide®,
and Replens® have been found to actually damage sperm, perhaps
even at a rate that is equivocal to contraceptive Jellies (www.helpconceive.com).
Brand new evidence from a comparative study presented at the Cojoint
Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine suggests
that only Pre-Seed® did not appear to cause significant damage
to sperm.
In the first experiment,
sperm was incubated for 30 minutes. Motility measurements were 66%
in the lubricant-free environment, versus 2% for Astroglide®,
and 64% for Pre-Seed®. In the second experiment, sperm were
evaluated after 4 hours of incubation for damage to the genetic
material and graded according to the DNA fragmentation index. Pre-Seed
demonstrated the smallest effect with a 7% increase over the control
(no lubricant).
The findings of this
and other studies are significant. At the Saint Gerard Fertility
Care Center, we always ask about personal lubricants and the only
one that we recommend during the fertile time is Pre-Seed®.
Another reason to use Pre-Seed is because Pre-Seed is also the only
personal lubricant that meets physiologic pH and osmolarity requirements
for sperm and may protect against the harmful effects of free radicals.
Recently I interviewed
a woman who had been going to an infertility specialist for more
than 10 years and after undergoing many medical treatments and surgical
procedures with no pregnancies to show for it, she is now facing
menopause. Interestingly, she and her spouse were using KY®
routinely. In fact, they were buying it “by the box.”
She was surprised to find out about the effects of KY®.
We believe that
combined with the monitoring of fertility and cervical mucus, Pre-Seed
can be added to a program of infertility (when fertility is present
and cervical mucus quality is poor) as a routine recommendation
for assisting couples who desire to achieve pregnancy the natural
way. At our center, we have an easy to learn protocol that combines
the monitoring of fertility and the use of Pre-Seed for this purpose.
Copyright 2005 Majella.us
David Picella helps
couples who are trying to conceive naturally without the use of
expensive artificial reproductive techniques. You can read more
articles published by him and by other experts in this area at:
http://majella.us
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