The Male Health Trend Nobody Predicted
When couples consider starting or growing a family, the woman usually goes to her doctor for a check-up and starts taking prenatal vitamins. But since it takes two to make a baby, men can optimize their health too. This is important because “one in six couples are infertile,” according to Gigi Gotz, founder and CEO of Upstream, a concierge health company that helps men optimize their fertility.
She was inspired to help couples build families when she learned how few sperm donors there are in the U.S. when her close friends were looking for a sperm donor. There are only about 1,500 donors, she said. Couples seeking a sperm donor are given scant information outside of height and eye color. That’s not much to go on when making such a massive life-changing decision.
Is Sperm Quality Declining?
The science says yes, but there’s no single reason for this change. It appears to be a combination of lifestyle and environmental factors, according to Northwestern Medicine. But there's a lot one can do to improve their health, and diet is one of them.
“What's good for your heart is good for your penis and testicles. So, do what the cardiologists say to do. Eat a Mediterranean diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, simple grains, and clean protein from fish and chicken. Not a lot of red meat,” said urologist Nelson E. Bennett Jr., MD, who specializes in infertility at Northwestern Medicine, in a news release.
How Do You Optimize Sperm?
While women are born with all the eggs they’ll ever produce, men produce a new batch of sperm every 74 days, so they have many opportunities to get healthier before starting a family.
Upstream offers a 10-week personalized program for men to help put their best swimmers forward. The company offers at-home fertility and blood testing to get a baseline of their overall health, along with a detailed lifestyle questionnaire to see where they can optimize their health.
They crafted a list of questions to gauge how healthy the men are and asked about eating habits, like how much protein they are eating, whether they drink alcohol, and how their sleep is. Sleep and stress can have a big impact on fertility, studies show. They also recommend that men take a multivitamin of their choice and cut back on less healthy habits that affect sperm quality, like using a sauna or wearing tight underwear during the 10-week program. They also recommend regular exercise, which is good for healthy sperm.
Fertility Specialists Are On Staff
They have doctors on staff who review the data and report back to the men who participate in the program to see how their numbers are improving with repeat blood and sperm testing and analysis. This can be helpful for couples struggling to get pregnant or an optimization opportunity before even trying to conceive.
In her research, Gotz found that men who go through this program feel more connected to the baby their partner carries for nine months because what they are doing is intentional.
What Does the Upstream Fertility Program Cost
The Men’s Legacy Program costs $950, and for couples, they offer a more comprehensive program that costs $1,500 and includes a fertility assessment for women and synced up progress for couples who are doing the program together. Insurance will not likely cover the cost, although Gotz said some men got their blood work covered through their primary care doctor.