Shownotes
Wellness girl chat with us today as we shift the spotlight a bit today to discuss something super important and often overlooked—male fertility and its impact on your pregnancy journey 🤰👶. We dive deep into research showing how a man's health can affect pregnancy symptoms, your child's development, and even pregnancy complications like preeclampsia 🌟. Learn about the influence of paternal weight, lifestyle, and habits on fertility and pregnancy outcomes. Trust us, you’ll want to hear these crucial stats and actionable tips to help your partner enhance his fertility. Tune in for a fascinating discussion backed by science, because, after all, it takes two to tango! 🕺💃
Links:
Dr. Stacey's episode:: https://wellness-big-sis-the-pod.captivate.fm/episode/mamapalooza-creatine-for-women-mama-and-baby-from-conception-to-postpartum-with-dr-stacey-ellery-phd
Thorne Website:: https://s.thorne.com/Zgk7Y
My Thorne Dispensary & Recs:: https://www.thorne.com/u/drkelsyvickdpt
Message me for 35% off your Thorne orders!
Grab your very own Stakt Mat & Accessories for 10% off your order while also supporting the pod! (Thank you so much!):: https://shopstakt.com/?rave=DAW65UTUF4VNG7OV
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1108774
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35580859/
https://healthymale.org.au/health-article/obesity-overweight-can-impact-male-fertility
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3521747/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5892832/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6330890/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8963983/
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/physiolgenomics.00102.2018
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00:00 – 00:17 Intro
00:18 – 00:37 Introduction to Men's Role in Pregnancy
00:38 – 01:21 Overview of Women's Health Podcast Festival
01:22 – 02:17 Importance of Male Fertility
02:18 – 02:52 Research on Male Fertility
02:53 – 04:25 Scary Facts and Disclaimer
04:06 – 04:57 Thorne
05:17 – 06:30 Paternal Weight and Fertility
06:31 – 09:39 Impact of Paternal Obesity
09:40 – 12:41 Other Paternal Factors
12:42 – 14:17 Basics of Male Fertility
14:18 – 17:36 Hormonal Impact of Obesity
17:37 – 20:39 Improving Sperm Quality
20:40 – 21:44 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Mentioned in this episode:
Thorne Website:: https://s.thorne.com/Zgk7Y My Thorne Dispensary & Recs:: https://www.thorne.com/u/drkelsyvickdpt Message me for 35% off your Thorne orders!:: https://www.instagram.com/direct/t/17842574915346652
Transcripts
It is time we start to focus
on the men for this women's
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health focused podcast festival.
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And I know what you're thinking.
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You're thinking, Kelsey, they
sneak their way into everything.
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But trust me, you are definitely
gonna wanna hear this because today
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we're gonna be talking about how a
man's fertility affects your pregnancy
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journey, your pregnancy symptoms,
and the health of your child.
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Welcome back to Wellness Fix of the Pod.
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I'm your host, Dr.
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Kelsey Vic, a board certified orthopedic
doctor of physical therapy and a
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pelvic floor physical therapist.
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And throughout this month of May,
this month of mothers, we've been
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hosting a women's health focused
podcast festival through the
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lens of pregnancy and postpartum.
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We've been learning all about
the cool things that our
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bodies can do as women, but.
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Almost one of the most important phases
of our life of pregnancy and postpartum.
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So we've chatted about exercise
during each trimesters.
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We've chatted about sex.
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We've chatted about creatine
during pregnancy and postpartum.
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We've chatted about breastfeeding and
all of the cool things that our body goes
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through, but there's a whole other side to
that equation that we're not necessarily
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covering, and I really wanted to cover it.
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In this podcast festival because It
is gonna be one of those topics that
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we start to hear more and more about.
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I'm already starting to hear more and
more about it, which is why I wanted to
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dive into the research today and actually
cover male fertility and more importantly,
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how it really takes two to tango.
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We've been focusing on women during
this pregnancy and postpartum journey,
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In our bodies as women do such amazing
things, but our pregnancy journey, the
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health of our child, the health of our
family does come down to another person,
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and that is the male contributor to that.
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fertilization.
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So I wanted to talk about male
fertility today and really cover it
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from this perspective of what can
we encourage the men in our lives to
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do, to help their fertility because
I also feel like they're a little bit
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forgotten about in the fertility space.
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But again, it takes two to tango and
we need to make sure that we're looking
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at both sides of the equation in order
to really understand the full picture.
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So research has shown that the man
actually does contribute, obviously,
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to the child, but specifically fetal
development, pregnancy symptoms, a
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child's long-term health, possibly
how a mom feels during pregnancy
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and some of the health conditions
she might get during pregnancy.
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previously research has focused more
on those maternal factors, but I
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really do want to focus on the paternal
factors today so that we can get a
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better idea of how to help ourselves,
but then also help the men in our
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lives if fertility is a concern for
them, or a concern for us as family.
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So today we're gonna dive
into the research together.
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a little bit of a disclaimer
before we start, this will be
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talking about some scary things.
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A lot of the time we're focusing on things
that might lead to complications, right?
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And so that is where the start of this.
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Chat is gonna go just so we can understand
the link between what is happening with
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the paternal health that is going to
affect the child and the maternal health.
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So I don't want it to be super scary.
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I actually debated on sharing
some of these facts based on
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research, but I realized that.
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Being informed and educated is more
important than sheltering the scary facts.
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So please bear with me, I promise
I'm gonna try and explain why this
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might happen and why some of these
factors are the way that they are.
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But it is a little bit scary.
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So if you're not in the
right head space, if you are.
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Someone undergoing fertility
challenges or struggles or just,
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yeah, not in the right head space
to hear about this kind of thing.
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Then I recommend probably
skipping this episode.
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I'll leave chapters below.
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That way if there are chapters that you do
feel like you're in the right head space
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for, you can fast forward through those.
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But I just wanted to give that warning
because even as I was researching, I was
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like, gosh, this episode could definitely
turn into something that is very scary and
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not this sort of positive podcast health
festival that I wanna bring to you guys.
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But it's the importance stuff.
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And I realized
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This education might not be as
widespread as, say, a woman's health
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or maternal health education when it
comes to pregnancy and postpartum.
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So a few stats for you before
we dive into the research.
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. We are gonna be looking a
lot at the paternal weight.
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So overweight and obese are two
separate categories, and the research
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pretty much ranks them based on BMI.
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And I don't think, I don't know
if we've talked about BMI on this
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podcast before, but it's not the.
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Best indicator, but it's a
great standard indicator.
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So that's what we're gonna use today.
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So the cutoff for overweight men
or overweight in general, and again
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they do vary male to female, but
overweight in men is 25 to 29.9
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BMI.
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And I'll leave A BMI calculator
below, but it is basically take.
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The weight divided by
height in meter squared
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obese men have A BMI of 30
or more, so that'll be those
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cutoffs that we talk about.
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And so I'll leave that
BMI calculator below.
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If you're like, oh, hang on.
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does someone I love
possibly fall in that range?
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Overweight men again,
that BMI of 25 to 29.9
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are 11% more likely than their
normal weight counterparts to produce
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low numbers of sperm and 39% more
likely to produce no sperm at all.
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Obese men, again, that BMI of
30 or more are 42% more likely
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to have a low sperm count, 81%
more likely to produce no sperm.
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Paternal obesity actually leads to
decreased pregnancy rates, an increase
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in pregnancy loss in couples undergoing
things like IVF or assisted reproduction
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in some way, and there's an increased
oxidative stress on the sperm, which
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can lead to morphological changes.
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This next one is hard to tease out.
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They've done it in animal
models, but I figured I'd give
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you guys the stat anyways.
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Obese men are more likely
to parent obese children.
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Again, humans, it's hard to separate
because there might be multiple external
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environmental factors that are leading
to that, but in animal models it's a
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lot easier to tease out, and it has
been shown that there are changes
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in metabolic function, in offspring.
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Biased more towards a negative
impact on female offspring.
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Actually.
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When controlling for environmental
factors with paternal obesity, so in
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the offspring, they have been able
to tease out all of the other factors
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that might go into play and show that
paternal obesity can lead to negative
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health outcomes and negative metabolic
function in the offspring with a more
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negative bias towards female offspring.
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With obese and overweight men and
controlled for a healthy BMI in a female,
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there is a longer time to conception.
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There's been a lot of research done
on how paternal factors can influence
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preeclampsia, and preeclampsia is high
blood pressure during pregnancy in the
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female, and it relates back to hypoxia
or decreased oxygen within the placenta.
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So there's a lot of factors from
the paternal side that can feed
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into the maternal diagnosis and
the maternal signs of preeclampsia.
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The chance of preeclampsia in the
female was significantly higher with
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paternal obesity compared to normal BMI.
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As paternal BMI increases the
rate of preeclampsia increases.
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13 to 19% of the development
of preeclampsia can be
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attributed to the male.
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So a lot of the time there are male and
female maternal and paternal factors
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that go into this, but they have been
starting to try and tease out, okay, if we
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control for these factors in the mom, what
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Is coming from the paternal factors.
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This one was interesting to me, but men
and women, both who were born from mothers
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with preeclampsia, have an increased
risk for the female partner developing
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preeclampsia and maternal and paternal
obesity as a risk factor for preeclampsia.
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So we're focusing on the paternal health
factors, but a lot of these that we'll
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talk about today are also mirrored for
the maternal health profile as well.
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So maternal obesity and
paternal obesity are also.
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Risk factors for preeclampsia.
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We will focus a lot on that obesity part
today and that overweight part today.
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But I did want to give a few more stats
and these, it's hard to understand
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why, but I figured there are good stats
to have and just understand what all
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besides even body composition feeds
into how healthy a pregnancy is, how
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likely you are to conceive, and then
how healthy your child is later on.
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So older fathers, and this was a
meta-analysis, I believe, which.
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Combines a whole bunch of studies, and so
they said older fathers was over 35 ish,
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so it's hard to standardize that across
multiple studies in this grouped analysis.
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But over 35 ish babies are at an
increased risk for low birth weight
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seizures and a need for ventilation
immediately after delivery.
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Although there was a disclaimer
on this study too, where.
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It was relatively low percentages
of increase for those.
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So. It was when you started
getting to that 40, 45 range.
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But 35 did seem to be where that cutoff
was, and so that's where they marked it.
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All types of parental smoking
were associated with the risk
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of congenital heart defects.
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So there was an increase in 74%
for men smoking an increase in 124%
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for women experiencing secondhand
smoke, most likely from their
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partner throughout their pregnancy.
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And there was an increase in 25%
for women smoking during pregnancy.
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So what was interesting here
is that there was a higher
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percentage for congenital heart.
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Defects in women who experienced
secondhand smoke from, again,
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they estimated that most of it
was coming from their partner or
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whoever they were living with,
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and there was even less of a chance
of congenital heart defects with women
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who were smoking during pregnancy.
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And that risk decreased
significantly if the woman stopped
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smoking before pregnancy, which
I thought was very interesting.
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when they controlled for maternal factors,
less paternal education increased the
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chance for Preterm birth, low birth
weight, and small for gestational age.
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However, maternal education
offset the difference for
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small gestational age slightly.
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So there was this interplay and these
effects between both, where if maternal
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education was higher, it could offset
some of the paternal education.
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paternal race and ethnicity was associated
with increased chance for preterm
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birth, low birth weight, small for
gestational age and high birth weight.
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And paternal race and ethnicity were
primarily minorities, so Hispanic,
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non-Hispanic, black and non-Hispanic.
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Others, which I feel like this
is important to share because.
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This is one of those things that the more
education we have on this subject, there's
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so many variables that go into play, and I
have a few friends that I'd like to bring
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on to chat about this topic specifically,
and maternal health discrepancies
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and paternal health discrepancies
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primarily for minorities, but.
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I think the more that we are able to
understand this, the more we're able
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to advocate for ourselves and advocacy
is just one part of the puzzle, right?
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But the more that we can increase that
and understand that race and ethnicity
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does play a role in some of these
factors, the more that we can advocate
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for ourselves when we are undergoing
this like pregnancy, postpartum journey
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with our partner in trying to get the
best healthcare for ourselves and advocate
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for ourselves in the best way possible
in order to better help the baby too.
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So let's talk about the basics of male
fertility, and we're not gonna go over
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male reproductive anatomy or anything
like that, although if you want to learn
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more about that, definitely let me know
because we cover that a good amount.
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When we talk about pelvic floor
health and just like physical therapy
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in general, but we'll talk about it
today from a high level perspective,
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there's basically a few check marks
that we wanna check off to say, okay,
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These are some good qualities to have
in order to maximize our chances for
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a healthy fertilization, and A lot
of it comes down to sperm production,
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sperm quality and sperm motility,
or the ability of the sperm to swim.
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So with sperm production, we can have too
little or none at all with sperm quality.
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A lot of the time it's an abnormal
shape or an abnormal DNA structure.
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They called it a lot fragmented
DNA within the research.
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So just think about something
glitching within the sperm and
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then sperm motility, which.
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Is difficulty swimming.
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And there's a lot of things that
can affect these variables, and a
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lot of the variables affect a lot
of the different things in our life.
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So things like genetics, hormones,
and then also lifestyle factors.
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So we'll zoom in a lot today on
lifestyle factors and hormonal factors
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a little bit too, because those.
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Feed into each other a little bit, but
genetic factors we've touched on today,
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those are a little harder to change.
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And so there's a lot of fertility
issues and fertility complications
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that do come from genetics, and those
are a completely separate category.
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Same thing with genetics for
the maternal health, right?
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There's certain things that
we can't necessarily alter.
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So today we'll zoom in on the
things that we can actually adapt
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and change and help out with.
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So How does obesity and being overweight
lead to poor outcomes in poor sperm
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production, quality and motility?
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So we'll start from a hormonal
perspective, but as body fat increases
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leptin production rises and leptin
is the hormone associated with CT D.
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So it tells us when we're full, leptin
reduces testosterone production.
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Fat cells can also reduce
levels of testosterone directly
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by turning it into estrogen.
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So from both standpoints, fat
cells can themselves directly.
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Affect testosterone, but then
it can also indirectly affect
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testosterone due to the increased
levels of leptin within our systems.
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Testosterone is needed for
spermatogenesis, which is
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that production of sperm.
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So if we put it all together, obese
men with higher levels of leptin
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have lower testosterone levels, which
impairs sperm production, and the fat
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cells themselves act as little bitty.
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Transformers of testosterone into
estrogen, which again helps to lower
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testosterone and impairs sperm production.
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The next mechanism.
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This can happen by, I'm calling this S
scroll sauna, but body fat is like adding
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more steam to the sauna, and every inch of
belly fat increases scrotal temps by 1.5
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degrees Celsius.
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So an increased temperature in the male
reproductive organs so that squirrel's
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sauna can impair sperm production.
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That's why a lot of the time
we hear no hot tubs if you
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are trying to get pregnant.
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So this plays into that too.
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fat accumulation, also increases
oxidative stress due to the
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inflammation within the body.
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So it can affect sperm morphology, like
mutations within the sperm fragmented
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DNA, and it can also affect the ability
of the sperm to get to where it needs,
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so it's motility or ability to swim.
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And lastly, we have the
master manipulators.
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So I was trying to think of a metaphor
to link this to, but have you ever
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wanted to not show up to a party, but
you have that one friend who is come
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on, just go come to the party with
me, and you're like, fine, I'll go.
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So that's what happens to men's hormones
with increased body fat, with more fat.
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There's an increase in the enzyme or
the manipulative friend that tries
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to get You to go to that party that
transitions testosterone into estrogen.
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It's called aromatase.
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It's aromatase activity, but . It
tries to get you to go to that party.
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It tries to switch testosterone
to estrogen, Which is going
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to impair sperm production.
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So with obesity, there is a 50
to a hundred percent increase in
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this enzyme aromatase activity.
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In other words, the friend becomes
more and more manipulative, the
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more people it can get on board.
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Obviously there needs to be a lot
more research in this field and what
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can actually be correlated to what,
because there are two factors or two
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people that go into fertilization,
and so looking at both and better
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understanding what can contribute to.
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Both can really help the successful
outcomes of fertilization,
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pregnancy, but then also the health
of mom and baby and dad, right?
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So there needs to be a lot more research
in this area, but I think it will be so
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interesting to learn more and more, and
I think there will be a bigger emphasis
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on how can the man affect his health and
positively affect his health in order to
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help the outcomes of the mom and the baby.
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So now it's time for a sperm glow up.
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There is research and there has been
research done on how men can actually
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improve their sperm quality and improve
their sperm production, improve their
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sperm motility in order to help with
fertilization and healthy pregnancy.
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So that's the fun part because
it's actually the actionable
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part that we can help with.
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So the reversibility of paternal obesity,
so talking about that weight aspect, the
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reversal of that can positively affect
fertility, and there are studies that
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show exercise diet changes and GLP one
agonists or combo of those are effective
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at helping to reduce obesity, reduce
that amount of body fat percentage in
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order to positively affect fertility.
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There was a study done that showed
significant caloric restriction
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and significant weight loss really
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improved sperm counts by 40%.
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However, this was an 800 calorie
diet, which is not healthy.
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So again, there just needs to be more and
more research in the field, but it has
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been shown that it can reverse the effects
that increase fat percentage and obesity.
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Plays on a pregnancy and
the chances of conception.
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Regular exercise can also
improve sperm count and motility
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in overweight and obese men.
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So they recommend 30 to 60
minutes, three to five times a
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week of a moderate intensity.
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They typically bias that out to moderate
intensity, and I'm not quite sure if
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exercise intensity has a role to play
in that squirrel sauna or heating up
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the body to where the chances decrease.
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But they did specify moderate intensity.
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So what are some things that kill
sperm or things that we should
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completely cut out of the system?
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If our goal is pregnancy, vaping
and smoking, that one's definitely
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evident, if not only for the paternal
health, but also for the secondhand
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smoke that the mom might experience.
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Heat and hot tubs.
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Unhealthy amounts of body fat, again, in
those overweight and obese categories.
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Pesticides and microplastics,
alcohol, processed foods, and stress.
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Lower stress because that kills sperm.
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Always easier said than done.
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So what can we add in order to really
show some love to the sperm They love
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creatine, and we talked about this in Dr.
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Stacy's episode.
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They actually have a specialized
creatine Transporter only on
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sperm, so I'll link that episode
below if you're curious about it.
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We talked about it briefly, but
it was super interesting to learn.
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They love healthy body
fat percentage for food.
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In order to improve sperm concentration
and motility, they recommend leafy greens,
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berries, nuts, and beans, and in order to
improve sperm morphology in the forward
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motility of sperm, oily fish, and then.
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In order to improve just sperm,
motility tomatoes, so all of those
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foods, probably a combination
of all of them can really help.
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There was a study also done on
acupuncture, helping sperm, and
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then consistent moderate exercise.
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Again, I think that comes down to more of
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the heat that we don't necessarily
want in the male reproductive
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organs above baseline in order to
improve the chances of conception.
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So I'll leave all of the links,
all of the research articles,
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all of the information below.
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I'll leave the BMI calculator just
because we mention overweight and obesity
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a lot today, and sometimes it helps
to have that objective measure, but.
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I loved researching this episode.
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00:19:46,329 --> 00:19:48,849
It's been something I've been very
curious about just because I've
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been hearing more and more about it.
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00:19:50,469 --> 00:19:53,859
It's been getting sprinkled into some of
the conversations that I've been having,
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some of the things that I've been reading.
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So I figured it was time to
do a deep dive today and.
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Figure out what does the
research actually say?
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Are they human models?
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00:20:03,464 --> 00:20:04,604
Are they animal models?
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00:20:04,604 --> 00:20:06,584
Where are we getting some
of this information from?
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And what is the truth and
science of how paternal health
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00:20:10,934 --> 00:20:12,434
can affect maternal health?
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And then also the health of the baby.
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I hope you enjoyed this episode.
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I hope you learned a lot.
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Send it to whoever you think might
benefit from it, especially if you
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guys are looking to get pregnant and
you are wondering I'm doing all that I
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can, but what can my partner also do?
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So I hope this episode helped.
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I hope you enjoyed it.
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I hope you learned a lot, and I'll
see you guys again on the next
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episode of Wellness Exists, the pod.
