Just to say that my DH had variable SA results around eighteen months ago (and on various occasions before that) which meant that we might have had to have ICSI rather than IVF. We then had a consultation with a nutritional therapist who recommended a long list of vitamins, minerals and EFAs for both of us (different recommendations for each). We took them for 14 months prior to our first IVF cycle earlier this year, cut way down on tea/coffee and started eating more organic, unprocessed food and more protein (we are vegetarian, and nutritional therapist thought we were a bit low on our protein intake). I also cut out alcolhol. DH doesn't drink but, if he had, he would have cut way back on that too!
Although we ended up with a BFN on our first cycle, DH's SA scores improved on all counts and are now classed as normal, and we were able to have IVF (ended up with two good embryos to put back). At our follow-up consultation I was also told that I responded far better than might have been expected for someone my age. The doctor said she doesn't believe supplements make any difference but can't say why else DH's counts might have changed so much. I don't know for certain if the supplements made a difference to either of us but they certainly don't seem to have done any harm and we are going to keep taking them until our next IVF cycle.
However, DH was fed up with taking around 12 different pills a day (don't blame him as prescribed by the nutritonal therapist!) so I did some research myself using Zita West's book and Marilyn Glenville's book and, after weighing up what each lot contain, we decided that he would take Marilyn Glenville's Fertility Plus for Men as well as an EFA supplement and Co-enzyme Q10 (which were both recommended by our nutritional therapist and which Zita West also seems to think are important). Don't really know anything about Holland and Barrett's vits so can't comment on those. I would really recommend getting hold of the two books, or else at least looking up the Zita West and Marilyn Glenville websites where they list the various vits, minerals etc which are in their supplements. That way you can compare them with each other, and perhaps also compare them with the H&B supplements, and then decide which you think is best.
