Protect your sperm from injury

Sperm cells

Young men who are not yet thinking of raising a family sometimes take things too far. They engage in some risky behaviours that not only jeopardise their health but the health of their sperm also.

This is not to say it’s only young men that unwittingly toy with their sperm’s health. Adult men do, too, by making unhealthy and unwise life choices that may make it difficult or, sometimes, impossible, to impregnate a woman.

Experts aver that sperm cells take about 75 days to grow to maturity, and that harming them can affect a man’s fertility. The World Health Organisation notes that half of infertile couples fail to reproduce because of problems with the man’s fertility.

Scientists say when it comes to conceiving a child, there are lots of things that can go wrong, and they include ineffective sperm, among others. Indeed, gynaecologists say, of the approximately one in 10 couples who are infertile, male factors alone contribute to an estimated 30 per cent.

Family physician, Dr. Toun Agbaje, says, generally, sperm health depends on three major factors — the quantity, quality and motility (movement).

She says a man is deemed fertile if the quantity of semen he discharges in a single ejaculation is more than 15 million sperm per milliliter.

In terms of quality, Agbaje notes that normal sperms have oval heads and long tails, and that the more sperm with normal shape and structure, the more the chances of being fertile.

As for motility, the doctor says sperm travels a lot in order to reach the desired destination. “To reach and penetrate an egg, a sperm must swim through a woman’s cervix, uterus and Fallopian tubes. This process is known as motility. So, a male is most likely to be fertile if more than 40 per cent of the sperm are moving,” Agbaje reveals.

But how can a man mess up his sperm’s health?
In no particular order, one of the problems has to do with the temperature that the male sex organ is exposed to. Have you noticed the dressing style among the youth? It has become the norm for young men to wear multiple underwears.