Male infertility study

[Shirley Reischman]

This just came to me and I thought it would be of interest to the list.

Individualized homeopathic therapy for male infertility
. 133-144 (doi:10.1054/homp.2002.0024)

I Gerhard, E Wallis*

Outpatient Clinic for Complementary Medicine, Department for Gynecological
Endocrinology and Reproduction, Gynecological Hospital, University of
Heidelberg, Voßstr. 9, D-69115, Heidelberg, Germany

Abstract
This prospective observational pilot study investigated the effect of
individualized homeopathy on male infertility based on sperm count, hormone
values and general health. Forty-five subfertile men were treated with
single homeopathic remedies for an average of 10.3 months. The drugs were
prescribed on the basis of the overall symptomatic situation. The variables
`sperm density', `percentage of sperm with good progressive motility' and
`density of sperm with good propulsive motility' improved significantly,
especially in cases of oligoasthenozoospermia. The general health of
patients improved significantly. The following factors emerged as positive
predictors of therapy success: alcohol consumption below 30 g/day,
non-smoking, the presence of less than five dental amalgam fillings, no
exposure to noxious substances at the workplace and no previous inflammatory
genital diseases. The factors stress, age above 36, high coffee consumption
and long duration of unwanted childlessness did not have a negative impact
on therapy outcome in this study. The rate of improvement in sperm count
through homeopathic therapy is comparable to the improvement achieved by
conventional therapy, so that individualized-homeopathic treatment may be
considered a useful alternative to conventional treatment of subfertile men.
For further investigation, a randomised, therapy-controlled clinical study
with parallel group design would be useful (homeopathic therapy vs
conventional andrological therapy). Copyright 2002 The Faculty of Homeopathy

*Correspondence: I Gerhard, Outpatient Clinic for Complementary Medicine,
Department for Gynecological Endocrinology and Reproduction, Gynecological
Hospital, University of Heidelberg, Voßstr. 9, D-69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
E-mail: frauenklinik_ambulanz_nhv@med.uni-heidelberg.de