Here is what is really going on, and the one mechanism nobody explained to you.
You did the sample. Count, motility, morphology, volume. Four rows. Inside the range. The GP said it was fine and the conversation moved back to her.
You think: "The report said normal, so it is not me."
Here is what the report did not say. A sperm cell can be present, correctly shaped and still swimming, and still be running on an empty tank. Count tells you how many. It tells you nothing about whether each one has the energy to finish the journey.
The energy is made in one place. And nobody looked there.
Wrapped around the middle of every sperm cell is a tight ring of mitochondria. Around 70 to 80 of them. That ring is the engine. It makes the ATP the tail beats on, and the tail has to beat for hours.
When that engine is under-fuelled, the cell does not die. It just swims slower, straighter for less time, and stops short. On your report that shows up as one word: motility.
Researchers can measure the charge across those mitochondria. It is called mitochondrial membrane potential. It predicts how long a sperm keeps swimming. Low charge, low motility. In men with low motility, the mitochondria were found to be supplying only around 30% of the cell's energy, against around 42% in men with normal motility.
So "low motility" is not a description. It is an energy reading. And an energy reading can change.
Someone, somewhere, told you to take antioxidants. A men's multi. Vitamin C. Zinc. Maybe something from the clinic. You took it for three months and the numbers did not move.
You think: "I have done the supplements. They do not work on me."
Here is the thing. Antioxidants do one job. They protect the cell from damage. That is protection. Fuel is a different job. A protected engine with no fuel in it still does not run.
The fuel side of the story has its own compounds. CoQ10 is the part of the engine that carries the charge. Carnitine is the fuel line that moves fat into the mitochondria to be burned. Most men have never been told either of them exists, let alone at what dose.
What it does Limits damage
Typical advice Vitamin C, E, zinc, a multi
Powers the tail ✕
What it does Supplies energy
Typical advice Rarely mentioned
Powers the tail ✓
The Sunday call. "Any news?" The uncle at the wedding who asks in front of everyone. Your mum, praying about it out loud. And at home, a wife who has done the bloods, the scans, the tracking, maybe a laparoscopy, while you did one sample and were told it was fine.
You think: "It is never the man. Not in my family."
The data says otherwise, and it says it specifically about us. In a single-centre analysis of nearly 3,000 men examined for infertility, men of Sub-Saharan African origin had the lowest progressive motility of any group, a median of 5% against 15% in white men. In a US cohort, Black men had the highest rate of an abnormal semen analysis, at 54%. And a 2026 review found that stigma is the single biggest reason Black men stay invisible in fertility care.
That is not a verdict on you. It is a reason to look. Motility is the parameter that drops most, and motility is the one that runs on fuel. Which means it is also the one where a male-side routine has somewhere to work.
median progressive motility in men of Sub-Saharan African origin, against 15% in white men, in one analysis of 2,996 men examined for infertility
Source: PMC12493616, 2025"Particularly in the Black community, a man is someone who can produce revenue and produce children. If he presents with fertility issues, he is often ridiculed and sometimes has his manhood questioned."DARREN D. MOORE, PHD, LMFT · ESSENCE
Every sperm in your next sample is being built right now, over the next 74 days. The engine is being assembled in that window. Whatever the raw material is, that is the engine you get.
The fuel side of that build has five parts, and the research on them is not vague.
In a 1994 study of 77 men, the amount of CoQ10 in seminal fluid correlated directly with motility. A placebo-controlled trial gave 200 to 300mg a day for six months and saw CoQ10 rise inside the sperm cells themselves. A 2025 meta-analysis of eight randomised trials in around 900 men found better count, motility and progressive motility with CoQ10 than without. Nine randomised trials of carnitine, pooled, found better total and forward motility. These are the two compounds most men have never been told about.
But a dose on a label is not a dose in the cell. Most shelf CoQ10 is ubiquinone at around 100mg, and up to 85% of it is lost in the gut. You can swallow it every day and your sperm never see it.
Built for the man whose wife has done every test, and who has done one.
Fuels the mitochondria in every sperm tail.
Carries fuel into the cell.
Protects sperm DNA from oxidative stress.
Helps build new mitochondria.
Gets the CoQ10 past your gut.
Nothing else in the capsule. That's the point.
CoQ10 and PQQ support mitochondrial function in the developing sperm cell, the ring that powers the tail.
Acetyl L-carnitine supports the transport of fatty acids into the mitochondria, where the energy for motility is made.
Ninety capsules is one complete 74-day sperm cycle plus the retest window. Day 1 to retest, one routine.
Ten seconds every morning that are yours. Something to say when she asks what you are doing. Something to do while the clinic does theirs.
| NERELLE | THE £5 MEN'S MULTI, OR WAITING |
|---|---|
| ✓Built around the sperm midpiece and the 74-day cycle | ✕Built for "general wellbeing" |
| ✓300mg CoQ10 as ubiquinol, with piperine | ✕A token dose in the form the gut destroys |
| ✓Carnitine for the fuel line, 500mg | ✕Usually missing altogether |
| ✓Five compounds, clinical doses, nothing else | ✕Thirty ingredients at label-filler doses |
| ✓A male-side routine you own, alongside the clinic | ✕"Keep trying" and another six months |
| ✓€1.56 a day on the 90-day protocol, 90-day guarantee | ✕An IVF cycle at around £5,000, no guarantee |
Two "normal" results and a wife who had done everything. Read this, understood motility for the first time, started the next morning. It is the first thing in two years that felt like mine.
Took a men's multi for a year. Never knew protection and fuel were two jobs. Ten seconds with my coffee, every day, through the whole 90.
I still haven't told the family. But I'm doing my part now, and my wife knows it. That changed the house.
Three bottles is one full 90-day protocol, one complete sperm cycle plus the retest window. Pause or cancel any time.
STARTER
THE FULL PROTOCOL
THE COMPLETE CYCLEEvery option comes with the 90-Day Sperm-Cycle Guarantee. If your numbers don't move after a full protocol, refund. Pause or cancel any time from your account.
Five compounds, nothing else: CoQ10 as ubiquinol (300mg), acetyl L-carnitine (500mg), alpha-lipoic acid (300mg), PQQ (20mg) and piperine (10mg). Chosen for the two jobs in the sperm midpiece, fuel and protection, at the doses used in the published trials. Full label on the product page.
Sperm motility runs on energy made by a ring of mitochondria in the midpiece. Ubiquinol supports the electron transport that makes that energy, carnitine supports moving fatty acids into the mitochondria to be burned, alpha-lipoic acid helps recycle the cell's antioxidant defence, PQQ supports the formation of new mitochondria, and piperine supports absorption of the CoQ10. Nerelle is a food supplement that supports normal function. It does not diagnose, prevent or address any medical condition and is not a substitute for clinical care.
One capsule, once a day, with food. Most men take it with breakfast or their morning coffee. Ten seconds. Run it for the full 90 days, which is one complete 74-day sperm cycle plus the window your clinician usually asks you to wait before a retest.
Free tracked shipping across the UK and EU. Subscribe to save 20% on every refill, pause for up to 3 months a year without losing your rate, and cancel any time from your account. Questions go to nerellehelp@gmail.com.
Give it the full cycle. If your semen analysis numbers don't improve after 90 days, you get your money back. Full terms at trynerelle.com.
Your side of the conversation starts tomorrow morning.