Male Reproduction/Beteseron/and MS.

[hudson101]

Greetings!!I posted this in the beteseron section as well. I hope this is does not come across as me being rude or anything. I am A 35 beteseron guy! The wife and I are trying to conceive. I have been reading that beteseron may affect the mans sperm count. A lot of what I see is all positive women related items with some mixed in woman problems via google. I am freaking out, because I want to give us the best chance possible. Anyone know the effects of beteseron towards sperm count and if it does make an impact, what are my next options. Sorry, I have been up and basically handling this bad and stressing to no end. Sorry, I just want to do all I can! I am sorry if this has been posted before. Thank you for any feedback!-Thank you Daniel Hudson

[lyndacarol]

Welcome to ThisIsMS, Daniel.

Although I do not have the answer to your specific question, I feel confident that others here will be able to help. We are open to all questions related in any way to MS. All the best to you and your wife!

[hudson101]

Thanks for having me!!!

[MarkLavelle]

I think you just need to relax!

I don't know anything about Beta and sperm count, but unless you've been trying for over a year you are getting *way* ahead of yourself worrying about it...

[jimmylegs]

hi and welcome

something to consider: zinc status.

zinc is required for fertility in men and women. zinc is low normal in the average ms patient, and high normal in your average healthy control.

you can both get a serum zinc test and make sure your levels are in the high teens. ensure good dietary zinc and minimize foods/drinks that interfere with zinc absorption. choose a supplement if needed to get levels up. if levels are middle of the normal range you can try 50mg per day for a month. if your levels are in the low teens or even lower, you can take 100mg per day for a month. if you decide to follow up, feel free to ask me for more detail on forms, balancing with copper etc.

my supervisor at work was trying to get pregnant for a year and a half and couldn't. when i mentioned the zinc-fertility link she took it to heart enough to ask me for more detail. they were pregnant in 6 weeks and the baby's an adorable toddler now

zinc can increase male sperm count.

interestingly, vitamin e has been shown to be protective against zinc deficiency (in rats though). and one thing betaseron does is elevate vitamin e levels. now vitamin e is important in its own right but indirectly, betaseron may be protective against the low zinc found in ms patients, via its effects on itain e levels.

i don't know how it might be interfering with sperm count but for now i'll leave you with a few studies:

Effect of Zinc Administration on Plasma Testosterone, Dihydrotestosterone, and Sperm Count
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10 ... 8109009378

Changes in Seminal Quality Following Oral Zinc Therapy
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... x/abstract
33 subfertile men with idiopathic asthenozoospermia and/or oligozoospermia were treated with oral zinc sulphate. After treatment a significant improvement in the percentage progressive and total sperm motility was noted accompanied by a significant increase in seminal fluid zinc levels.

Effects of folic acid and zinc sulfate on male factor subfertility: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial (2002)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 8201032290
"Total normal sperm count increases after combined zinc sulfate and folic acid treatment in both subfertile and fertile men. Although the beneficial effect on fertility remains to be established, this finding opens avenues of future fertility research and treatment and may affect public health."

Alpha-tocopherol and NADPH in the erythrocytes and plasma of multiple sclerosis patients. Effect of interferon-beta-1b treatment.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14634265
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the influence of interferon-beta-1b (INF-beta-1b) therapy on blood antioxidants (alpha-tocopherol and NADPH) in multiple sclerosis (MS).
METHODS: Patients with relapsing-remitting MS (n = 14) have been studied during 6 months of INF-beta-1b therapy. alpha-Tocopherol was determined by HPLC and UV or electrochemical detection; NADPH was quantified spectrophotometrically. RESULTS: The erythrocyte alpha-tocopherol level was reduced (p < 0.001) before treatment, but had regained the control level by 6 months of therapy.

a look at interconnections btw zinc and vit e

Dietary zinc deficiency decreases plasma concentrations of vitamin E
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?hl=en& ... 5&as_sdtp=

The beneficial effect of vitamin E supplementation on zinc status, carbohydrate metabolism, transaminases and alkaline phosphatase activities in alloxan-diabetic rats fed on zinc deficiency diet
http://ijod.uaeu.ac.ae/iss_1502/c.pdf

[Anonymoose]

Hi Daniel,
Here's a link to a similar discussion. http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Multiple-S ... ow/1609119

If you are concerned about fertility and/or birth defects, maybe you could take a break from the med for a wash out period? If going through that trouble, you might want to consider banking some tadpoles for future children so you wouldn't have to disrupt your ms therapy again.

Best of luck!

[jimmylegs]

i can link you up to lots of reading on zinc levels and correlation with risk of birth defects, but it's nothing to do with medication...