Stress reduces sperm quality, is acupuncture the answer?

Impact of stress on female infertility and pregnancy has been well documented. Below study, published in the journal of Fertility and Sterility, shows male reproductive health is similarly affected by it. The researchers are confident the correlation between stress and sperm parameters is clear.

Acupuncture has been shown to improve sperm quality, it has also been shown to help with stress. Researchers at the Georgetown University Medical Center have shown that acupuncture interferes with the very mechanism of stress.

Effects of work and life stress on semen quality

Teresa Janevic, Ph.D., Linda G. Kahn, M.A., M.P.H., Paul Landsbergis, Ph.D., Barbara A. Cohn, Ph.D., Xinhua Liu, Ph.D., Pam Factor-Litvak, Ph.D.

Published: May 22, 2014 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2014.04.021

Objective
To evaluate associations between work-related stress, stressful life events, and perceived stress and semen quality.
Design
Cross-sectional analysis.
Setting
Northern California.
Patient(s)
193 men from the Child Health and Development Studies evaluated between 2005–2008.
Intervention(s)
None.
Main Outcome Measure(s)
Measures of stress including job strain, perceived stress, and stressful life events; outcome measures of sperm concentration, percentage of motile sperm, and percentage of morphologically normal sperm.
Result(s)
We found an inverse association between perceived stress score and sperm concentration (estimated coefficient b = ?0.09 × 103/mL; 95% confidence interval [CI] = ?0.18, ?0.01), motility (b = ?0.39; 95% CI = ?0.79, 0.01), and morphology (b= ?0.14; 95% CI, ?0.25, ?0.04) in covariate-adjusted linear regression analyses. Men who experienced two or more stressful life events in the past year compared with no stressful events had a lower percentage of motile sperm (b= ?8.22; 95% CI, ?14.31, ?2.13) and a lower percentage of morphologically normal sperm (b = ?1.66; 95% CI, ?3.35, 0.03) but a similar sperm concentration. Job strain was not associated with semen parameters.
Conclusion(s)
In this first study to examine all three domains of stress, perceived stress and stressful life events but not work-related stress were associated with semen quality.