Objective: To study the effect of the traditional Chinese therapy of tonifying the kidney and invigorating blood circulation (TKIB) on male infertility.
Methods: Forty-two infertile males with abnormal DNA fragmentation index (DFI) were randomly allocated into a TKIB (n = 22) and a control group (n = 20), the former treated by TKIB with an oral Chinese medicinal prescription while the latter with oral tamoxifen tablets and vitamin E capsules, both for 3 months. Before and after treatment, we obtained the semen parameters and sperm DFI from the patients and followed them up for the outcomes of natural pregnancy.
Results: Compared with the baseline, the patients in both the TKIB and control groups showed significant increases after medication in sperm concentration (［36.82 ± 29.16］ and ［34.56 ± 37.03］ vs ［50.00 ± 39.16］ and ［40.72 ± 47.37］ ×10⁶/ml, P<0.05), the percentage of progressively motile sperm (PMS) (［20.62 ± 9.10］% and ［21.25 ± 9.11］% vs ［36.82 ± 13.45］% and ［26.18 ± 10.60］%, P<0.05) and the percentage of morphologically normal sperm (MNS) (［1.28 ± 1.00］% and ［1.48 ± 0.91］% vs ［3.44 ± 1.33］% and ［2.57 ± 1.32］%, P<0.05), but remarkably decreased sperm DFI (［29.07 ± 11.52］% and ［24.43 ± 8.46］% vs ［15.51 ± 11.31］% and ［18.53 ± 10.44］%, P<0.05). The patients of the TKIB group exhibited an even higher total sperm motility and percentages of PMS and MNS than those of the control group (P<0.05) but no statistically significant difference from the latter in sperm concentration or DFI (P>0.05). Besides, the former achieved higher rates of natural pregnancy (18.2%) and live birth (18.2%) than the controls (15% and 10%) though neither with statistically significant difference (P>0.05).
Conclusions: The traditional Chinese therapy of tonifying the kidney and invigorating blood circulation can reduce sperm DNA damage and improve the outcomes of natural pregnancy in infertile men.
Keywords: infertility; sperm DNA fragmentation index; tonifying the kidney and invigorating blood circulation.