Therapeutic Supplementation With Antioxidants and Vitamins Improved Sperm Motility Among Infertile Men With Idiopathic Low Spermatogenesis

Antioxidant/vitamin combo raised sperm motility from 17% to 24% in infertile men — statistically significant, still well below normal

Journal: Archivio Italiano di Urologia e Andrologia | Published: 2026-03-02 | Type: Prospective Cohort Study | PMID: 41778998 Authors: Sawaqed F, Suoub M, Ayyad M, Al-Rawashdeh S, Al-Saraireh YM, Salem Hareedy M (all Mutah University, Karak, Jordan) Funding/COI: Not disclosed

Summary

Infertile men with idiopathic low spermatogenesis received an unspecified combination of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, with semen analysis at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. Sperm motility improved significantly; sperm count edged up but not significantly; morphology and agglutination barely moved. The abstract never names the specific supplement formula used, which makes the findings difficult to replicate or apply.

Claims

• Sperm motility increased from 16.95±6.93% to 23.68±8.73% over 6 months (p=0.0006)
• Sperm count rose from 13.05±8.1 to 15.26±10.3 million/mL — not statistically significant (p=0.1650)
• Morphology and agglutination showed "little changes" (no values reported)
• Positive correlation between sperm count and motility at 3 months (r=0.594; p=0.007)
• Authors conclude antioxidant use is "safe and can improve semen parameters"

Study Quality

This is a single-arm prospective cohort — there is no control group, no placebo, and no randomization. Any observed improvement could reflect regression to the mean, seasonal variation in semen parameters, or the well-documented test-retest effect in semen analysis. The abstract also omits the sample size entirely, which is a basic reporting failure. The supplement formula is described only as "a combination of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants" — without knowing the specific compounds and doses, the study is effectively unreproducible.

The 3-month plateau (motility at 3 months: 23.11%; at 6 months: 23.68%) suggests most of whatever effect exists occurs early and does not continue accumulating. The absolute motility endpoint of ~24% remains below the WHO reference value of 40% progressive motility, so the clinical significance of the observed improvement is unclear from this data alone.

Red Flags

• No control group; no placebo arm — confounders are uncontrolled
• Sample size absent from abstract — cannot assess statistical power
• Supplement formula not named — results cannot be replicated
• Funding and COI left blank — cannot evaluate industry influence
• "Idiopathic" etiology is a catch-all that may mask heterogeneous underlying causes
• No morphology or agglutination numbers reported, just "little changes"
• Single institution, presumably homogeneous population (Jordan)

Strengths

• Prospective design with three time points (baseline, 3 months, 6 months)
• Reports standard deviation and p-values for primary outcomes
• Clinically relevant population (men with documented idiopathic low spermatogenesis)
• Statistically significant primary endpoint with a reasonable p-value (p=0.0006)

Verdict

The statistically significant improvement in sperm motility is real enough within this dataset, but the study design does almost nothing to establish causation. Without a control group, an unnamed intervention, and no sample size in the abstract, this paper cannot tell us whether the supplement combination caused the improvement, which component drove it, or whether the same improvement would have occurred without treatment. It adds a data point to an already crowded literature on antioxidants and male infertility, but it is not a basis for clinical conclusions. File under: "consistent with prior small studies, insufficient on its own."