Are Dates Good for Fertility?
Dates and Fertility - Benefits of Dates for Men & Women
When your life seems to revolve around dates (the calendar kind) it’s refreshing to find out that another kind of date can enhance your reproductive process and your partners.
I’ve been immersed in research about dates recently - especially around eating dates to enhance labor and birth so it got me thinking that dates may be beneficial for health preconception.
Are dates good for female fertility? Are dates recommended for male fertility? It certainly seems probable as a nutrient-rich snack or sweet dessert. Let’s take a look at the research and see.
A new research paper about dates in fertility caught my eye as it wasn’t something I’d come across before - specifically the benefits of date palm pollen - DPP (it’s even available on Amazon).
Benefits of Dates for Men - Are Dates Good for Male Fertility?
DPPs were used by the early Egyptians and Chinese as a ‘rejuvenating’ medicinal agent. DPPs and male palm flowers are also thought to be aphrodisiacs and have been used in the Middle East for the treatment of male infertility and to support fertility in women. Unfortunately, most of the research on DPP has been done on animals but two clinical trials showed that DPPs markedly improved sperm count and motility, increased sexual desire, and other hormones in infertile men. The most recent (2021) demonstrated significant improvements in sperm quality at a genetic level which is very exciting! The participants were administered 400 mg/kg of capsules of DPP daily for 30 consecutive days.
“We found that taking DPP in infertile males significantly improves the semen quality including sperm count, semen volume, morphology, and motility of sperm.”
Date seeds are also associated with an increase in testosterone in animal studies.
One limitation of this study was that the study only lasted for one month and a complete cycle of spermatogenesis is 86 days. The authors recommended considering a three-month treatment period for better results.
Benefits of Dates for Women - Are Dates Good for Female Fertility?
Most of the studies on dates and female infertility are on animal studies. One study showed that there was a significant improvement in hormonal regulation, strengthening of oocytes, and pregnancy in female rats.
Hopefully there will be more human trials in the future on the benefits of date products to support reproductive health. I’ll share as I come across more data. You might also be interested to know that there’s a strong link between eating dates in the last trimester of pregnancy and shorter labors and less blood loss.
In the meantime I’d love to hear your experiences of date palm pollen, especially if your partner is willing to try these sweet treats for 3 months.
Tracy
