Bee Pollen for Fertility

Can bee pollen really correct infertility in men and women? Do bee pollen benefits assist couples who are trying to conceive?

Many promoters of bee pollen for fertility would have you believe that bee pollen is loaded with natural sex hormones, the same hormones in bee pollen that appear in the human body. These hormones, the story goes, are absorbed from pollen in sufficient amounts to change the hormonal processes in the human body that cause infertility.

These product claims are just plain false. No one has ever detected estrogen, testosterone, follicle stimulating hormone, progesterone, or luteizining hormone in pollen. And think about it a moment. Why would a plant need to make human hormones? It is just a fanciful story designed to encourage people to buy the bee pollen supplement.

But that doesn't mean that bee pollen is never helpful to would-be parents. There are issues that contribute to male infertility that can be helped by taking bee pollen extract and whole, natural bee pollen supplements.

Which Would-Be Fathers Benefit from Bee Pollen?

The prospective fathers who benefit most from taking bee pollen products are those who have low volume of semen. Before I explain why this is the case, a little review is in order. The sperm is the cell that can fertility the egg to form the zygote that can be implanted in the wall of the uterus to begin the pregnancy. The semen is the fluid that carries the sperm to the cervix. Once inside the cervix, the sperm "swim" through cervical mucus to reach the uterus and then the opening of the fallopian tubes to fertilize the egg.

The lining of the cervix is naturally acidic. Semen is alkaline, because of the presence of the amino acids spermidine, spermine, cadaverine, and putrescine. These amino acids (or more precisely, salts of these amino acids) are responsible for the odor of semen, and they also counteract the acidity of the cervix so that sperm can pass to enter the uterus. The prostate gland secretes these amino acids.

The prostate gland also adds zinc to the seminal fluid. The zinc in semen protects the DNA of the sperm cells, enabling more of them to be able to fertilize the egg should they reach it. Sperm with DNA defects are not likely to cause birth defects. They are far more likely simply not to be capable of fertilizing the egg.

How Bee Pollen Supports Prostate Health

A healthy prostate is essential to making semen and to male fertility. Bee pollen provides a compound called beta-sitosterol that is chemically similar to testosterone but that works by stopping excesses of testosterone.

High testosterone levels cause inflammation that interferes with the release of spermidine, spermine, cadaverine, putrescine, and zinc into semen. Men who take bee pollen have both greater production of semen and greater viability of sperm.

Bee pollen also helps make the sex act more pleasurable. Erections, as is discussed in the article Can Bee Pollen Cure Impotence, are stronger and the ejaculate travels further into the cervix, giving the sperm a shorter route to travel to reach the egg for fertilization.

Is taking bee pollen all a man needs to do to correct a low sperm count or low sperm volume. Bee pollen helps, but it works by increasing the availability of zinc. Taking a zinc supplement along with bee pollen is a minimum for male fertility support.