Male supplements for fragmentation - proxeed versus impryl results?

[Peony85]

Hi ladies, my hubby has normal sperm count and other parameters (motility, morphology, etc) but high fragmentation. We’ve had him on proxeed and a bunch of other supplements (vit C, E, D, ubiquinol) and while those caused his already normal measures to go up, the fragmentation only ) improved marginally. I’m now wondering whether to switch to Impryl given it seems to work in a different way but they say not to take any other antioxidants at the same time so a pretty big switch. Has anyone with fragmentation issues had good results with Impryl versus Proxeed? Looking to do what we can while we TTC naturally and wait for the clinics to reopen!

[ttcemmie]

Hiiiii. My hubby hasn't got the best sperm, and he's on general multi-vits, and has tried ubiquinol (not recommended, but not not recommended by our clinic), but we have now just got Impryl delivered which has been specifically recommended by our fertility consultant (and our clinic is usually quite reluctant to recommend things). Can't say anything about it yet, but interested to see the answers you get. What's Proxeed?

[Peony85 in reply to ttcemmie]

Thanks Emmie. Proxeed has L-carnitine and a bunch of anti oxidants and I had read those were good for fragmentation... Impryl claims to use supplements to boost natural antioxidant production and hence avoid issues with sperm decondensation if there is too much antioxidant activity. So they’re basically completely different and that’s why I’m torn! I’m going to do more research this weekend I think... look forward to seeing how it goes for you, keep me posted please xx

[ttcemmie in reply to Peony85]

Thanks Peony85. x

[Lilly12255 in reply to Peony85]

Hi Peony, what was your conclusion on the supplement at the end?

[Peony85 in reply to Lilly12255]

We ended up sticking with Proxeed. I know others have had good experience with Impryl but it didn’t seem as “potent” based on the ingredients. We had a slight DNA fragmentation improvement but ended up doing a SSR in the end. Xx

[Lilly12255 in reply to Peony85]

Thanks. Do you know if low sperm morphology is a problem?

[Peony85 in reply to Lilly12255]

For us, morphology and the rest of the typical sperm parameters have always been in the normal range. Although they fluctuated, and were generally better post proxeed. It’s the DNA fragmentation that was an issue for us though.

[Lilly12255 in reply to Peony85]

May I ask what prompted you to test the fragmentation? We never tested it. Is there any sign that indicates testing would be a good idea?

[Peony85 in reply to Lilly12255]

After our second cycle, we had good progression to day 3, but a big drop off to day 5. Something like 12 to 3, but 2 of those were very poor quality, and the 1 we transferred failed. That kind of a large drop between days 3 and 5, especially if day 3 has pretty good quality, is often an indicator of fragmentation issues. There can be lots of reasons for it, including sub clinical infection so can come and go if it is something like that.

[Libsie3103 in reply to ttcemmie]

HI, do you mind me asking where you bought Impryl from? My husband has just been advised to take it by our Consultant and it would be good to know where people have got it from. Thanks! x

[ttcemmie in reply to Libsie3103]

Heyyy. We bought from here fertilityfamily.co.uk/shop/

[Libsie3103 in reply to ttcemmie]

Thanks - that's where I'd seen it just wanted to check it was legit!! x

[ttcemmie in reply to Libsie3103]

Yeah, tried to find it in a number of other places (amazon, ebay, general Googling etc.), but this seemed the most legit.

[KiboXX]

We used Proxeed and then Impryl came out and we switched to that on the recommendation of our clinic as it’s easier, tablet rather than two sachets a day and my hubby hated the taste of proxeed!

Both had same improvement rates for us on motility and count but not sure on the fragmentation side xx

[Melrey in reply to KiboXX]

How long has he been taking impryl

[KiboXX in reply to Melrey]

He was taking Proxeed for a year then switched to Impryl. The one cycle where he didn’t take it properly as was travelling a lot, we had a crappy sample and a bad cycle.

I know it’s not the cheapest but it made a huge difference to us and it was recommended by two separate clinics x

[Melrey in reply to KiboXX]

Oh amazing it worked. Did he take any other supplements alongside it?

[KiboXX in reply to Melrey]

No nothing else x

[Peony85 in reply to KiboXX]

Thanks Kibo. How long was your husband taking Impryl after the switch from Proxeed?

[KiboXX in reply to Peony85]

He never took it religiously except for when we were doing a cycle and then he would always do it for at least three months before Xx

[Libsie3103 in reply to KiboXX]

HI, do you mind me asking where you bought Impryl from? My husband has just been advised to take it by our Consultant and it would be good to know where people have got it from. Thanks! x

[KiboXX in reply to Libsie3103]

You can normally buy it from your clinic but obvs not at the moment! I think you can get it on fertilityfamily.co.uk x

[Libsie3103 in reply to KiboXX]

Thank you! x

[Melrey]

My husband also has fragmentation.

I looked into all the options but if you look at the ingredients in impryl they are very limited so it seems strange that something with limited ingredients will make a difference.

We then opted for procieve instead - worth looking into as has an awful lot more in it then proxeed and impryl.

Best of luck keep me posted with what you find works best.

X

[Peony85 in reply to Melrey]

Thanks Melrey. That was my concern with Impryl too at the start... how long has your husband been on Procieve and have you seen a difference? I hadn’t heard of it before but will check it out!

[Melrey in reply to Peony85]

My acupuncturist actually suggested it, I hadn’t heard about it before hand either. I can send you a pic of the ingredients if you want just send me a message. We purchased from boots online under a 3 for 2 deal.

He has been taking it for 4 months and we were mid way through our third round of ivf but it was cancelled due to covid so I don’t know if it had an improvement on dna fragmentation yet I’m afraid. So upsetting that the cycle was cancelled!

What dna score does your other half have? X

[Melrey in reply to Melrey]

He also takes turmeric and tomato paste and maca tablets and coenzyme q10. I can send you info if needed x

[Jm82]

Hi, after a failed 1st round but where we had 7x viable embryos but each transfer ended in either miscarriage or a negative test we were advised to have further tests. We were devastated when my other halfs fragmentation test came back at 59% damaged, we were advised to take proxeed and after 3- 4 months and a re-test it had come down to 31%, still in the poor category but a massive improvement. We decided to wait a further 3 months and continue with it then started our 2nd round. This time we got 4 viable embryos but of better quality and after the 1st transfer I'm now 15 weeks.

Don't give up, male issues can be fixed/improved. Proxeed doesn't taste very nice but you can put it in orange juice to stop them moaning quite so much.

Good luck and if you have any questions do let me know xx

[Peony85 in reply to Jm82]

Congratulations on your pregnancy JM! We had fragmentation tested after 2 failed transfers... we then did a cycle with IMSI which yielded better blasts but ended in MMC. When we did a repeat Comet test, the high fragmentation improved a little but overall there wasn’t as much of a difference as I expected (he was at 39% before and 10% high fragmentation and that went down to 8% high). That’s why I’m wondering if maybe Proxeed isn’t working for him or this is as much as we can do with supplements. Pre COVID we were planning to do surgical sperm extraction at the recommendation of the urologist but not sure how all of this will work after things reopen so trying to develop a back up plan with IMSI and ejaculated sperm if for some reason we can’t go down the surgical route. Xx

[fridayfever]

My husband and I started taking impryl 3 montha prior to our last round of ICSI because I had poor and low egg quality and husband had DNA fragmentation and I'm pleased to say after a double embryo transfer I'm finally 16 weeks pregnant. I'm not saying it's a wonder cure but if like us we had nothing left to lose and thankfully it's worked.

Good luck xx

[Peony85 in reply to fridayfever]

Congratulations on your pregnancy! Were you taking anything before or was Impryl the first thing you took? I’ve been taking a bunch of stuff that seems to be working for me including inofolic which my clinic recommended since I have PCO.

[fridayfever]

To be honest what haven't we tried.

But when we changed fertility clinics they said to continue with imprynl and a tomato supplement which my husband had been taking called lycopene. I had been taking folic acid, pregnacare, imprynl, ubiquinol and high level vitamin D. This consultant told me I didn't need to take the last 3 but I had been taken for 3 months.

This was 6th round for us and very last and got the most number of eggs in 9 collected and had 2 which made it to transfer so had a fresh transfer at 3 days xx

Totally different protocol to the previous rounds.

[Lots8788]

Our clinic recently suggested to take both. Proxeed sachets x 2 one day, then impryl the next and keep going like that taking it in turn each day. Think we may try that next. Xx