Male Fertilty May be Improved by Antioxidants

Antioxidants may improve male fertility: "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Couples who struggle to conceive could find baby-making help from antioxidants such as vitamin E and zinc, hints a new review of more than 30 studies.

The researchers focused on men who were subfertile -- less fertile than average but still capable of making a baby -- and found that those who took antioxidants were more than four times as likely to get their partners pregnant than subfertile men who did not take the supplements.

The New Zealand team stops short of saying that antioxidants actually improve fertility, however.

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Some men are allergic to their own semen

Semen allergy suspected in rare post-orgasm illness: "LONDON (Reuters) - A mysterious syndrome in which men come down with a flu-like illness after an orgasm may be caused by an allergy to semen, Dutch scientists said Monday.

Post orgasmic illness syndrome is largely unknown among family doctors and experts say many men who suffer the condition feel ashamed about it and confused about what is wrong.

Hyposensitisation therapy is a well-known technique for treating allergies, also called allergen immunotherapy, which repeatedly exposes the body to small but gradually increasing amounts of the allergen over several years.

In the POIS therapy, the men were given skin injections containing their own semen, at first in an extremely dilute form, and then in gradually less diluted forms. The study's results showed that after one and three years respectively, the men showed a significantly reduction in their POIS symptoms.

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