It’s well known that the health of the female during preconception is essential to having a healthy baby, but what do we know about the men?
A study published in the PNAS journal has shed the light on just that.
Maternal health is always very important for the health and future development of the offspring and there have been numerous studies that have established that, however there has been little investigation into the paternal diet.
Researchers from Aston University in the United Kingdom have revealed a potential link between the programming pathways in sperm development and the paternal preconception diet.
They discovered that men who had a diet that was lower in protein and higher fat content produced sperm that had a higher level of DNA fragmentation, which influenced the fertilisation rate, embryo development and affected the health of the offspring.
It is important to understand the significance of the preconception health of the man before embarking on your fertility journey.
It’s a common misconception to believe that the responsibility lies solely on the female, however it does indeed take “two to tango” and the men will make up 50% of the embryo we are wanting to create. A healthy mum and a healthy dad will improve the chances of producing a healthy embryo.