Romantic Advice for Would-Be Parents
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Daily sex can improve the genetic quality of a man’s sperm and could raise his chances of fathering a child, research has suggested.
Couples who are trying for a baby are often advised to have sex every other day, so that the man’s sperm count has time to recover, but scientists in Australia have discovered that this may lower some men’s fertility.
While abstaining from sex for a few days raises the sperm count, quality can be damaged if a man ejaculates too infrequently. A study at Sydney IVF, a centre for infertility treatment, has found that daily sex for a seven-day period substantially improves the genetic quality of sperm, without lowering sperm counts enough to impair fertility.
David Greening, who led the research, said that for some couples having intercourse every day during the woman’s most fertile period could be crucial to starting a family.
The findings, which he presented yesterday at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Amsterdam, could also have important implications for couples having IVF. Men are usually advised to abstain from ejaculation for three days before providing a sperm sample for fertilising their partner’s eggs and many couples do not have regular sex while going through IVF.
July 3, 2009
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