Does Masturbation Affect Male Fertility?
Frequent ejaculation from masturbating can temporarily lower sperm count and semen quality. However, masturbating in general won’t cause you to have a low sperm count or affect your ability to have children in the future. Even masturbating more than once a day doesn’t have any long-term impact on your sperm count or your fertility.
But in the short-term, having frequent ejaculations can temporarily lower your sperm count and semen quality, which could negatively impact your chances for pregnancy if you are actively trying to conceive.
How Can Frequent Masturbation Lower Sperm Count?
Masturbation is a healthy and normal part of human sexuality. However, if a couple wants to get pregnant, the man might need to reduce the frequency of his masturbating in order to preserve the amount of sperm needed for fertilization.
In fact, there is some evidence to show that optimal semen quality is achieved after two to three days without ejaculating.
To replenish his fertilization stores, a man must produce more sperm. This requires time, as it can take up to 90 days for sperm to be produced and to fully mature.
The sperm count necessary to fertilize an egg is reduced by frequent ejaculation of the semen. Therefore, the amount of sperm will be lower for a man who masturbates daily compared to a man who doesn’t.
Men wanting to conceive should reserve their ejaculations for intercourse only in order to have a higher sperm count. Fertility will be increased if the man allows the sperm in his body to accumulate rather than being consistently depleted.
However, despite research indicating that optimal semen quality is achieved after 2-3 days of not ejaculating, other research suggests that men who have normal sperm quality maintain normal sperm motility and concentrations even with daily ejaculation. Of course, your chances of getting pregnant with your partner will increase if you have sexual intercourse with ejaculation multiple times per week, regardless of whether or not you masturbate.
Benefits Of Masturbation
Masturbating is perfectly normal and healthy. Even if it is more than once a day, it’s not harmful. You don’t need to worry too much about masturbating as long as it doesn’t interfere with your daily life.
In fact, masturbation actually has a number of benefits for your mental and physical health. Here are a few of them:
- Relieves Stress – Masturbation can be used to help people to relax, as it reduces stress and relieves physical tension. It can also help some people fall asleep more easily.
- Eases Pain and Discomfort – Having an orgasm (through sex or masturbation) releases endorphins, which the body’s natural painkiller. Some women masturbate to relieve menstrual cramps.
- May Reduce the Risk For Prostate Cancer – Recent research has observed that frequent ejaculation may decrease the chances of a man developing prostate cancer.
- The Safest Sex – Masturbation is the ultimate form of safe sex, as your risk for an STI or pregnancy is zero.
See Also: The Best Supplements For Increasing Sperm Count
Karl Bianco is an Executive Editor at The Sperm Count Report. He has previous experience as a senior editor for both print and digital media for 8 years, where he wrote about and edited articles pertaining to health and fitness, sex and relationships, medical news and technology.
