Life of Sperm

What could be easier than the conception process? After ejaculation an army of sperm cells rushes toward the female egg, but these sperm cells have to face a lot of obstacles on their way. And only one of them, the sturdiest and with the most vitality, will reach the target.

The birth of spermatozoon, male reproductive cell that carries genetic information, takes place in the testicles at the speed of about 1000 spermatozoa per second. So over the whole day the male body produces more than 72 million spermatozoa and this process does not stop even for a minute from youth until old age. There have been experiments proving that even the sperm of 80-year-old men contains cells of great vitality with the total number of cells from 200 to 400 million. The conception is possible with at least 50 million spermatozoa. The most active sperm cell moves to the target literally over other spermatozoa’s “dead bodies”, which die in mass in the acid environment of the vagina in the struggle to create new life.

It takes about 70 days for a healthy and nimble spermatozoon to come into the world. The cells constantly mature continuously undergoing the quality check by special controllers – spermatofags, whose task is to find and destroy defective and weak sperm cells. Thanks to spermatofags the percentage of defective cells is reduced to the minimum.

The regular body temperature is too high for the sperm; hence testicles are created to be hanging outside the body. The fact that one of them hangs higher than the other is also not a coincidence. In such position they touch each other less and thus don’t overheat. The spermatozoa mature in the testicles, learn to actively move and wait for the ejaculation. The waiting process is one month, after that month they have to die and decompose, giving way to the new replenishment.

At the moment of orgasm the well-trained spermatozoa rush through the ejaculation channel in an organized way. The powerful contractions of the prostate gland’s muscles carry them to the urethra where they blend in with the liquid consisting of seminal bubbles and prostate gland fluid. The front and rear parts of this liquid don’t contain a lot of spermatozoa; it’s the middle part that’s full of them. Sperm does not consist of spermatozoa only. It is also composed of the so-called spermine, which is produced by the prostate gland, antibacterial compositions and sperm “liquifiers”, which provide living space for sperm cells and are also the reason for sperm’s distinctive smell. Sperm without the smell is actually a dangerous symptom of the lack of the prostate gland secretion and hence its malfunction.

Only a couple hundred out of several hundred thousands of spermatozoa will be able to break through the acid environment of the vagina. Part of the ones that broke through will get stuck in the cervix of the uterus, some will die already inside of it, and some will go astray into the empty fallopian tube. Only two minutes after ejaculation the female egg can already be fertilized. The first one to reach the target will be the strongest and the nimblest spermatozoon.

And after all those obstacles imagine reaching the target, only to find out that you haven’t been expected at all. What if a woman has just had a period and the egg has not matured yet? Of course the spermatozoon will wait, but no longer than 7 days and only provided there are at least several more of spermatozoa waiting on the ovulation with it.

In reality, the male reproductive cells prevail by means of patience and their number. If there is less than 1 ml of sperm produced even the strongest and most enduring spermatozoa will not be able to manage the acid environment of the vagina. However, there is one more condition required in addition to the number and nimbleness - quality. There is a rule that the more often the man ejaculates, the less spermatozoa there are in the sperm and the more liquid it becomes. And still the most important condition for spermatozoa is good mobility. Usually there are about 80% of quite mobile spermatozoa in the sperm. But even if their number is 30%, there is no reason to worry yet, however you should be concerned if there are less than that number.

You can ask your doctor to check the mobility of your sperm. This kind of diagnostics can also uncover any kind of spermatozoa defects, for example too small or too big head. Other examples of biological defects include doubled head or curved neck and doubled or tripled tail. There should be no more than 30% of defective spermatozoa; otherwise there could potentially be some genetic abnormalities.

You could actually find out if everything is all right without the doctor. The normal sperm has the milk color, but if there is not too much of it, then it’s transparently blue. If there is a low count of spermatozoa sperm becomes completely transparent; yellow color indicates the presence of leucocytes in the sperm which means that there is an inner inflammatory process. Pink color signals danger, it means that blood from the urethra got into the sperm. In this case you should contact your doctor immediately.

Keeping your sperm healthy is really a matter of staying healthy overall. Some general suggestions would be to cut down on cigarettes and alcohol, to maintain a healthy diet, to avoid drugs, to exercise. Frequent hot tubs have been shown to lower sperm counts, a climate can affect your sperm depending on the region you live in. Wearing tight underwear that overheats the testicles has been proven to reduce the quantity of sperm.

It is important to remember though that we still don’t know all the facts about male fertility, so even if you’ve been trying to get pregnant for a while and haven’t succeeded yet, don’t give up hope!