Sex Is More Than Making Babies

Babies…

A recent encounter with a married young man in his mid-thirties, a father of three, who came calling to complain about his frustration with his dwindling sexual prowess, largely predicated on the recurring symptoms of pre-mature ejaculation and un-sustained erection makes a discourse on the highlighted topic on spot today.

Back to the argument of “sex is not necessarily for babies’ making hypothesis”; over the years, I have argued that the essence of sexual intercourse between the opposite sexes is primarily for the sensual enjoyment of the partakers in the act and not primarily for the propagation of our species - the Homo sapiens. The popular notion and teaching that sex or copulation in human beings is mainly for the purpose of procreation is definitely not supported by available scientific logic and other related facts.

Take the evolution’s viewpoint for example; the act of sexual intercourse is not exactly the same thing to human beings as it is to lower animals on the evolutionary tree. To us, sex has become part of our day-to-day emotional expression of both love and hate. How do I mean? Ordinarily, the norm is to have sexual attraction to a loved one whereas the opposite is the case to somebody we hate. On the other hand, to the lower beings on the evolutionary tree, copulation serves mainly as a process to aid the passage of the male’s gametes (sperm cells) into the female reproductive tract; this is toward fertilising the female’s gametes (eggs) for the propagation of the species- nothing more is attached.

Another convincing argument comes to light here: most lower animals approach each other for sex only during their so called ‘heat’  period; that is, when the female is physiologically ready to make new offspring, equivalent to when the female Homo sapien is about to ovulate in humans. However, for human beings, sexual attraction can takes place any day, including those days far away from the ovulation day; in fact, sex in human can occur any moment for that matter.

To humans, it does not matter if the lady is about to ovulate or if she is just starting her menstrual cycle or even if she is menstruating - no prohibitions per se, except probably for aesthetics reason or as the case may be.

Another point which supports the notion that sex does not exist primarily for procreation, as some would argue especially from certain religious-moral angle, is that pregnancy as a by-product of sexual activity can actually occur in only 1 in 10 (i.e. just 10%) of the days available for sexual activity. This is inferred from the fact that it had been scientifically proven that the male sperm cells will only survive in the female reproductive tract for a maximum of seventy-two (72) hours; just as the female ovum (egg) will only survive for a maximum of twelve (12) to twenty-four (24) hours. In other words, the fertile days in a woman are only 3 days in a month at the most.

Hence, in a lady with the not uncommon 30 days cycles, only 3 days make up the real unsafe period for her during the month. Implying here that, away from these days, she and her partner can enjoy to the fullest the satisfaction derived from sex, without the ‘complication’ of getting pregnant.

It thus appears that as we move up the evolutionary tree, nature has changed the focus or the essence of sex from being mainly for the purpose of making new offspring to that of self-rediscovery and emotion’s manifestation. This is further exhibited by the fact that, within the reproductive tract of the female a lot of barriers are in place to make it virtually impossible for the sperm cells ‘to make it’ to the unfertilised egg, especially outside the fertile days.

The following simple mathematical interpretation suffices here: whereas for majority of women, one egg is produced during the ovulation period; for fertilisation to occur however, the male needs to produce and get in as much as 100million of sperm cells into the female genital passage before pregnancy can be contemplated. In other words, the probability of getting pregnant with numbers of egg to sperm cells is in the vicinity of 1/100,000,000!

So, why the need to produce so much sperm cells, in hundreds of millions, to fertilise just a single egg? The reason is mainly because of the many biologicall barriers on the path of the sperm cells to the egg in the female reproductive tract, ostensibly to prevent pregnancy from occurring; this especially so in the vagina canal, which is quite hostile to the survival of the sperm cells inside the female and where 99% of the sperm cells in the semen usually perished after ejaculation.

The above is explained by the fact that whereas the sperm cells survive in alkaline medium i.e. the semen, the secretion in the vagina is mainly acidic in nature, which is very hostile to the sperm cells and antithetical to their survival. With this, millions of sperm cells perished in the vaginal canal (more than 99%) going no further to perform the role of fertilizing the egg. For the rest, and a very small minority of the original for that matter, the barrier hasn’t come to an end. They will still have to overcome the barrier effect of the secretion at the cervix which forms the entrance into the womb. The cervical secretion most times is thick, thus hampering the smooth swimming of the sperm cells towards fertilising the egg. Similarly, in a number of women, the cervical secretion also contains antibodies that actually attack the sperm cells and make them unviable.

Another contending factor against the sperm cell ‘making it’ to the ovum is that viable fertilisation of the two can only occur at a particular point in the Fallopian tube which connects the eggs’ production site (the ovary) to the womb. So, if a sperm cell is ‘unlucky’ enough to fertilise the ovum after it has passed through the aforementioned ‘point for viable fertilisation’ called the ‘Ampullary region’ -   such fertilised egg becomes unviable and it is subsequently lost and aborted.

From the foregoing, it becomes clear that the actual ‘risk’ of getting pregnant from sexual intercourse is quiet low, so much that it could be argued correctly that pregnancy appears to be the ‘by-product’ rather than the main essence for sexual intercourse in humans.

The above contentions then brings to the fore that sex must necessarily exist for other reason in human beings, other than for making babies. This reason is the expression of our innermost emotion/affection transferred in the course of sexual activities; and this, should be explored to the fullest.