Antioxidant supplements and semen parameters: Anevidence based review

Many studies have focused on male infertility. There is limited evidence about theinfluence of nutrition on quality of semen. Approximately, 30-80% of infertilitycases are caused by oxidative stress and decreased level of seminal total antioxidantcapacity. This study was aimed to review the effects of oral antioxidant supplementson improving major semen parameters such as sperm concentration, motility,morphology, DNA damage, and fertility rate. Data were extracted from PubMed andGoogle scholar database by using the terms antioxidant , multivitamin , carnitine , CoQ10 , vitamin C , vitamin E , zinc , folic acid , N-acetylcysteine and selenium combined with male infertility , semen , and sperm togenerate a set of relevant citations. Supplements such as CoQ10 and alphatocopherol significantly improve sperm count. Also, carnitine has positive effects onsperm motility and morphology. Simultaneous administration of vitamin E andvitamin C reduces the sperm DNA damage. However, in some studies, one or morefactors have not changed substantially. In most of the studies, antioxidantsupplementation improved the number, motility, morphology and sometimes DNAintegrity of sperm. The present study showed that antioxidant supplements,especially a combination of antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and CoQ10intake can effectively improve semen parameters in infertile men

Antioxidant supplements and semen parameters: Anevidence based review Keywords:

Male infertility , Semen , Antioxidants , Carnitine , Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) , Vitamins