Effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical intervention on sperm quality: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

Infertility affects about 10% of the world’s population and has been recognized by the WHO as a global public health problem. The aim of this network meta-analysis was to investigate the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical interventions on sperm quality. All randomized clinical trials (RCTs) from the PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, China national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang database, and Cochrane Library databases evaluating the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions on semen parameters using network meta-analyses. Results of the ω-3 fatty acid, lycopene, acupuncture, and vitamin suggested evident advantages in improving sperm concentration (MD, 9.93 (95% CI, 7.21 to 12.65)), (MD, 8.79 (95% CI, 2.67 to 14.91)), (MD, 5.40 (95% CI, 2.32 to 8.49)) and (MD, 3.82 (95% CI, 0.70 to 6.94) respectively). Acupuncture has a significant advantage over placebo in improving sperm total motility (MD, 17.81 (95% CI, 10.32 to 25.29)), and the effect of lycopene was obviously greater than that of placebo (MD, 19.91 (95% CI, 2.99 to 36.83)). Lycopene, Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), acupuncture, ω-3 fatty acid, and vitamin suggested significant advantages in improving sperm forward motility (MD, 8.64 (95% CI, 1.15 to 16.13), MD, 5.28 (95% CI, 2.70 to 7.86), MD, 3.95 (95% CI, 3.23 to 4.67), MD, 3.50 (95% CI, 2.21 to 4.79)) and (MD, 2.38 (95% CI, 0.96 to 3.80) respectively). This review establishes that non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly acupuncture, exercise, lycopene, ω-3 fatty acids, CoQ10, zinc, vitamins, selenium, carnitine, or foods rich in these supplements, profitably improve sperm quality that may be used to treat male infertility.