How much do you know about semen? It turns out that the average man produces a staggering 1,500 sperm cells a second. We know that semen – also known by probably more colloquial terms (cum, spunk, sploog, etc, etc) than anything else connected with sex – contains sperm. But what else is in there?
People ask if it is safe to swallow it? Is it a myth that it is good for your skin? But what if it gets in your eyes? Did you know that there’s even a recipe book (available on Amazon, honest) for cooking with semen? There are also issues of how much an average man should produce; how important is it to fertility (actually 60% of of fertility issues are related to the man’s poor quality sperm) and why it looks and smells different at times.
What does semen taste like, and can that be changed? Most people find it mild and inoffensive, whist describing the flavour as somewhat bitter, slightly salty, sweet, ammonia-like, or metallic. Can you make your sperm taste better? Yes – drinking juices, such as pineapple and cranberry, will make semen taste sweeter and fruitier. On the other hand, it is best to avoid too much caffeine, strong smelling foods (especially asparagus), alcohol and cigarettes. Bad-smelling semen can be a sign of an infection, possibly a sexually transmitted infection. STIs may also be at work if the semen takes on a yellow or green colour.
Engaging in oral sex, is it okay to swallow? Though, of course, it’s entirely up to you, healthy semen is very safe to ingest – and is then simply digested in the same way as food. However, in very rare circumstances, some people might discover that they’re allergic to it. This is also known as human seminal plasma hypersensitivity (HSP) – though it is mercifully very rare. Getting semen in the eyes usually isn’t damaging but it can be quite painful – its sugars, enzymes, and acids, can irritate the fragile ocular tissue. Good to close your eyes, if he’s into bukkakying all over your face.
That it is good for the skin turns out not to be a myth. With ingredients including zinc, vitamin C, prostaglandins, collagen, vitamins, and amino acids, sperm is apparently great as an anti-ageing treatment. So much so, that a Norwegian company, Bioforskning, has synthesized the compounds into a facial cream, with the on-the-nose brand name of Spermine. According to their marketing spiel, Spermine can delay the ageing process by up to 20 per cent.
So how much of the stuff should a man produce at climax? If you believe what you see in porn, men having an orgasm squirt pints of the stuff. Truth is, though, that actually a lot less comes out than you might think. The average amount of semen released during ejaculation averages between two and five ml – that’s the equivalent only of between half and one teaspoonful. Yet, small amount of fluid as that is, there can be 15 million to 200 million sperm in an average millilitre of semen.
You should know that semen and sperm are not the same thing. Sperm are tadpole-shaped, microscopic cells measuring only 50 micrometers, created in the testicles, that are but one constituent of semen. There’s also vitamin C, B12, ascorbic acid, calcium, citric acid, fructose, lactic acid, magnesium, zinc, potassium, sodium, fat, and hundreds of different proteins. But if swallowing, don’t quit your daily vitamin just yet! The main function of sperm is to fertilize an egg inside the female body, and to get there, they are carried along – and fuelled – by fluid that’s produced by different male sex organs, the prostate and other sex glands.
On ejaculation inside a woman, a man will release between 300-500million sperm – but most of those will die within the hour. As for the rest, many are killed by acidity in the vagina, are destroyed by the woman’s immune system, or just get lost in the uterus. In theory, sperm can last for up to five days, but the odds are stacked against them.
But semen plays more than one role other than carrying a man’s sperm to the ovaries. Recent research suggests it is also crucial in activating ovulation. Scientists have discovered that key proteins in the sexual fluid act as a hormonal signal to the female brain. This triggers the release of other hormones that prompt the ovaries to release an egg.
While women lose their ability to reproduce when they menopause, men manufacture sperm form adolescence onwards. However, men produce the most volume in their twenties and, after the age of fifty, its quality definitely deteriorates. Around 85% of miscarriages turn out to be down to damaged sperm.
Finally, while we don’t want to push anyone into swallowing if they don’t want to, research has shown that those who swallow semen tend to avoid depression. Another of its many components is serotonin, otherwise known as the ‘happy hormone’. So if you are fine with ingesting it, you should be happier, have more positive moods and even develop a stronger immune system.