Increase Fertility with Near-Infrared and Red Light Therapy

Some research suggests that red light therapy may be useful for fertility, which is making quite an impact upon couples trying to conceive.

It also improves follicular health, which are highly vulnerable to oxidative stress. Two recent studies, one in Japan and one in Denmark, found that photobiomodulation improved pregnancy rates where IVF had previously failed, in Denmark, by 68%.

• Grinsted, A (2016). Laser therapy for female and male infertility. Annals of Laser Therapy Research, 4.

In Japan, near-infrared and red light therapy resulted in pregnancy for 22.3% of severely infertile women with 50.1% successful live births.

• Ohshiro, T. (2012).   Personal Overview of the Application of red and near-infrared light in Severely Infertile Japanese Females. Laser Therapy, 21(2): 97–103.
  As mentioned previously, the testicles also have photoreceptors that respond to red light, and research shows that photobiomodulation can greatly enhance sperm motility and therefore, fertility.

  • Yazdi, S., et. al. (2014). Effect of 830-nm diode laser irradiation on human sperm motility. Lasers in Medicine and Science, 29: 97–104

  • Iurshin, V.V., et. al. (2003). Etiopathogenetic basis for using magnetolaser therapy in the complex treatment of male infertility. Urologiia. 2):23-5.

In studies on human sperm, near-infrared light therapy at 830 nm produced significant improvements in sperm motility.

• Yazdi, S., et. al. (2014). Effect of 830-nm diode laser irradiation on human sperm motility. Lasers in Medicine and Science, 29: 97–104

Note: Some people have made some claims around the capacity ofphotobiomodulation to increase testosterone levels. While I was initially excited about this, upon exploring the research that was cited in support of this, I have concluded that the evidence is simply not strong enough to support these claims. The claims are based mostly on one study in rats, which wasn’t an impressive study – it only showed elevations in testosterone briefly on one day, before returning to normal.

• Jin-Chul Ahn, Young-Hoon Kim, Chung-Ku Rhee. The effects of low level laser therapy (LLLT) on the testis in elevating serum testosterone levels in rats. Biomedical Research 2013; 24 (1): 28-32

It also didn’t show testosterone elevation for the group using near-infrared (only in the group using red light). The study did use very high doses (far too high, in my opinion) and it’s possible that a more reasonable dose could lead to benefits for testosterone levels. However, other studies have failed to show similar benefits.

• Ahmed Saed Al-Ebady (2014) The effect of expose the rat testis to low level laser light on changing serum lh and testosterone levels

• Alves MB., et al. (2016) Low-level laser therapy to recovery testicular degeneration in rams: effects on seminal characteristics, scrotal temperature, plasma testosterone concentration, and testes histopathology.

I remain open to the possibility that red/NIR light may increase testosterone levels when used on the testes, but the evidence for it as of this writing (2018) is not sufficient. That said, there is some intriguing research on the ability of sun exposure and vitamin D to boost testosterone levels, and that seems a safer bet for now.

• Wehr, E et al. Association of vitamin D status with serum androgen levels in men. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2010; 73(2): 243-8

• Nimptsch, K et al. Association between plasma 25-OH vitamin D and testosterone levels in men. Clin Endoc. 2012; 77(1): 106-112

While the research on boosting testosterone is not strong, there is an abundance of solid evidence for the ability of red/NIR light therapy to improve fertility.