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Zinc: How Essential Is It to Your Fertility?

Hethir Rodriguez - Certified Herbalist and Nutritionist
July 16, 2021
Reviewed by Christine Traxler, MD

Maintaining a healthy body that is ready to conceive and carry a child requires getting just the right mix of nutrients. Unfortunately, far too many of us fail to provide our body with the fuel it needs to build strong cells and organs that are prepared for the job at hand.

The Importance of Zinc

A Zinc deficiency alone will not make you infertile, but it is a key factor in making many parts of the reproductive system work properly. Zinc is just one component, but it works with more than 300 different enzymes in the body to keep things working well. Without it, your cells cannot divide properly; your estrogen and progesterone levels can get out of balance and your reproductive system may not be fully functioning.

How Zinc Affects a Woman’s Fertility

In women, zinc plays a vital role in many key reproductive health areas including:

  • Egg production: a woman’s body needs a certain amount of zinc to produce mature eggs that are ripe for fertilization
  • Maintaining proper follicular fluid levels: without enough fluid in the follicles, an egg cannot travel the course through the fallopian tubes and into the uterus for implantation.
  • Hormone regulation: zinc is just one of the minerals that the body uses to keep hormone levels (like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone) levels stable throughout the entire menstrual cycle.

Low levels of zinc have been directly linked to miscarriage in the early stages of a pregnancy, according to The Centers for Disease Control’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Report, which tracks the results of numerous fertility research reports being administered throughout the nation.

Here is another reason why women should get enough zinc: it can help to reduce the size of fibroids. Since fibroids are a cause of infertility themselves, doing what you can to reduce their size can help to make getting pregnant easier for some women. Taking just 30 mg of zinc a day may help to decrease the size of inflamed fibroids, thus increasing the chance for a pregnancy to occur.

How Zinc Affects Male Fertility

As important as zinc levels are to a woman’s fertility, it may even more vital to a man’s ability to get his partner pregnant. Considered one of the most important trace minerals to date for male fertility, increasing zinc levels in infertile men has been shown to boost sperm levels; improve the form, function and quality of male sperm and decrease male infertility.

When low levels of zinc are found in the male reproductive tract, a variety of disorders may present themselves.

  • Immature sperm: zinc is necessary in the creation of the outer membrane and tail of a sperm. Without it, the sperm cannot mature to a stage that gives them the mobility and strength to make the long journey through the vagina, cervix and into the uterus for fertilization to take place.
  • Decreased motility: Low zinc in semen has been linked to poor sperm motility by researchers at the Division of Urology, The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York (Urology).
  • Chromosomal changes: low levels of zinc may also be the for reason chromosomal defects in the sperm, which could cause a miscarriage even if fertilization and implantation do take place.

Zinc Missing from Today’s Diet
Zinc is one of those minerals that are absolutely essential to fertility in both men and women; yet research shows that few people these days get the right amount. One of the reasons why zinc is in such short supply these days in the average diet is poor soil health, which fails to provide this important mineral. Heating and cooking can also reduce the zinc in foods by 50%. So it is important to eat foods high in zinc in their raw form. The richest source of Zinc is Oysters, but some easy to find and eat sources are raw pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds (look for tahini -sesame seed butter, as well).

Zinc Depletion Linked to Modern Lifestyle
It isn’t just a lack of zinc-filled foods that is sapping our bodies of this all-important mineral. Our modern lifestyle is too. Exposure to stress, pollution, alcohol, and even cigarette smoke can also deplete our bodies of important zinc supplies.

Food Sources of Zinc
Making sure to eat enough foods high in zinc on a weekly basis is important. Make sure to try to eat as many zinc sources as you can raw since cooking has been shown to reduce zinc content by at least 50%. Here are the foods highest in zinc, listed in order of concentration:

  • Beef including calf liver
  • Oysters and shrimp
  • Lamb
  • Venison
  • Sesame and pumkin seeds
  • Yogurt
  • Turkey
  • Green peas and many beans

Note: According to the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health, “Vegetarians sometimes require as much as 50% more of the RDA for zinc than non-vegetarians. In addition, they might benefit from using certain food preparation techniques that reduce the binding of zinc by phytates and increase its bioavailability.”

Supplementation to the Rescue
If you have tried to eat enough foods high in zinc, but still aren’t sure that you are getting enough, try taking a zinc supplement (our whole food prenatal multi-vitamin has the perfect amount of zinc in it). Take about 15 mg per day under normal circumstances. If your doctor suspects a serious zinc depletion or you also suffer with fibroids, you may need to take as much as 30 mg to provide your body with the amount it needs. Just be sure to also take a multi-vitamin containing copper (especially if using a higher zinc dosage), since zinc can cause a copper deficiency in some people.

Adding more zinc to your system may not guarantee a pregnancy, but it sure can help to ensure that you have all of the minerals your body needs to produce strong eggs and sperm and is prepared as best as it can be for the job of building a baby ahead.

References

  • Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/art/index.html
  • Office of Dietary Supplements – Zinc. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-HealthProfessional/
  • David, S. S., & Blakeway, J. (2009). Making babies: a proven 3-month program for maximum fertility. New York: Little, Brown.
  • White, L. B., & Foster, S. (2002). The herbal drugstore: the best natural alternatives to over-the-counter and prescription medicines! New York: Signet.
  • Caldamone, A.A., Freytag, M.K., Cockett, A.T.K., Kokett, T.K. (28 January 2004). Seminal zinc and male infertility. Urology. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-4295(79)90421-7. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0090429579904217

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About the Author

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Hethir Rodriguez - Certified Herbalist and Nutritionist

Hethir Rodriguez is the Founder and President of Natural Fertility Info.com. She has been a Certified Herbalist for over 19 years, holds a Bachelors degree (BS) in Nutrition Sciences. Since founding Natural Fertility Info.com in 2007, Hethir has written and co-authored over 1200+ articles on Fertility; and her research, articles, and guides have been read by over 40,000,000 people. Hethir has dedicated her life to empowering women with to take control of their health with natural therapies.

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It would be best to avoid these chemicals as much as possible. 

👇👇To  learn more about which chemicals to avoid and which products are most important to replace type in ‘TOXIC’ in the comments below to get my guide to Creating a Healthy Home for Fertility Pregnancy & Family 👇👇

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3️⃣ Protect and remove any substances that are causing harm

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1️⃣ Eat a diet high in fiber. More fruits and veggies

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You can do this by charting your fertility (I have a lot of posts about fertility charting on my feed as well as my website) and also paying attention to your period. 🩸

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👇 To learn more on how to support your fertility naturally, type STEPS in the comments below to join my free mini-course - 5 Steps To Improve Your Fertility Naturally, where I go into detail on each of the steps you can take to support your fertility cycle. 👇

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🌱 One of my favorite ways to support fertility and hormone health is through herbs. 

Over the past 20+ years that I have been an herbalist I have seen what herbs can do to help turn someone’s health around. 

When it comes to fertility there are a lot of different herbs that you can use. But they all have different actions. There is no one herb that fits all for fertility. 

That is one of the reasons I make herbal blends & formulas. 

Three of my favorite herbs are vitex, maca and shatavari, but they each have different effects on the body. 

So the key to success with fertility herbs is to first figure out what is going on in your body and then you can pick the right herbal formula for you. 

You can do this by charting your fertility (I have a lot of posts about fertility charting on my feed as well as my website) and also paying attention to your period. 🩸

To learn more about my herbal formulas for fertility support type HERBS in the comments below and I’ll share a link to my formulas 👇👇
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