Sex Teenage Sperm
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Sex Teenage Sperm
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Hannah Devlin science correspondent
The error rate in the sperm cells of teenage boys is about 30% higher than that for young men. Photograph: Sarah Jones (debut Art)/Getty Images
Wed 18 Feb 2015 06.01 GMT Last modified on Wed 14 Feb 2018 21.43 GMT
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A new study by scientists at the University of Cambridge claims teenage sperm is genetically weak, but is the claim credible?
Teenage boys already have plenty to worry about: spots, girls and the size of their “thing”, as Adrian Mole might have put it. Does the problem of having genetically weak adolescent sperm really need to be added to this list?
Scientists at the University of Cambridge have suggested this is the case after carrying out a study involving more than 24,000 parents and their children. The analysis focused on tiny genetic differences between parents and offspring, which are assumed to be caused by copying errors in the egg or sperm cells.
The study shows that, on average, fathers pass on at least six times as many of these mutations to their children as mothers. This suggests sperm DNA is a less faithful replication of the father’s genetic sequence, probably because sperm cells have undergone more divisions than the female egg cell by the time conception occurs.
The more striking claim – and the one that got most attention – is that the error rate in the sperm cells of teenage boys is about 30% higher than that for young men.
The researchers say this could explain why children of teenage fathers have a higher risk for disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and spina bifida.
The paper’s author, Peter Forster, said: “Children of 15-year-old boys have about 30% more mutations than children of young men. It’s a J-shaped distribution.”
This probably translated to a risk of birth defects of about 2% for teenage boys, compared with an average risk of 1.5%, he said.
Forster said: “It could be that the whole sperm production system is more error prone at the start … that it just isn’t optimised yet.”
He said that the theory had even prompted the idea, by another journalist, that if teenage boys masturbated more, they might be able to work their way through this “suboptimal” period more rapidly.
Before teenagers heed this suggestion (don’t they already devote quite a lot of time to this activity?), it’s worth looking at the paper itself , in the Royal Society Journal Proceedings B.
The odd thing is the complete absence of the J-shaped curve. Here’s the graph, which looks like a straight line to me.
It is true that the data point for teenage boys may show a slightly higher number of mutations than that for the 20- to 30-year age range, but it still appears to overlap with the 95% confidence interval for the linear trend. I can’t see any reason to conclude that “the germ cells of adolescent boys are an exception to the ageing rule”, as the authors do.
If you were going to go down that route, you might also wonder why sperm goes a bit dodgy at 30, but then recovers again with the approach of middle age, because there seems to be a spike in the 30-35 category. A simpler explanation is that the data is just a bit noisy.
Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at the University of Sheffield, agrees: “This doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t see a J-shaped relationship and, in terms of biology, I can’t think of anything that would explain it.”
Forster points to several population studies, which hint that teenage fathers may be more likely to have children with various disorders. But it is hard to say whether such results are linked to direct genetic causes or social and environmental factors. For me, this latest studydoes not do much to resolve the issue. As Pacey puts it: “I don’t see any great concern for teenage dads.”
And for those teenage boys who are not dads, there are probably other reasons to wait until their 20s to embark on fatherhood.
Christina is a New York City-based writer and commerce editor. She has worked at various publications including InStyle, Shape, Verywell Health, and Health. She also has a RYT-200 certification.
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The male body holds many mysteries. Why are guys always scratching their balls? What exactly is a foreskin supposed to do? Why do flaccid penises look so ridiculous?
But the most pressing questions we have concern semen—also known as ejaculate, spunk, and by a host of less printable nicknames. Sure we know it contains sperm, but what else is in there? Why does it look and smell different sometimes, and is it just a myth that it's great for your skin? To answer these and other questions, we talked to a men's health specialist, who shared some seriously fascinating facts.
Semen and sperm are not the same thing. Sperm are tadpole-shaped, microscopic cells that are part of semen. Their job is to fertilize an egg inside your body, and to get there, they're carried along by fluid that's produced by different male sex organs.
“The prostate fluid contains chemicals that make semen more liquid-y so the sperm can swim more freely,” Michael Reitano, MD, physician in residence for the men’s health service Roman , tells Health . “The seminal vesicles [two tubes in the pelvis] provide fructose, a sugar that gives spermatozoa the energy it needs to swim all the way to the female egg.” All together, these components make up semen.
Dr. Reitano says that sperm contains vitamin C, B12, ascorbic acid, calcium, citric acid, fructose, lactic acid, magnesium, zinc, potassium, sodium, fat, and hundreds of different proteins. But don’t quit your daily vitamin just yet. “The quantity of actual nutritional components is tiny,” he says, and most of it is simply water. What about the calorie count? "If the actual nutritional elements are added—meaning all the fats, proteins, and carbohydrates—then a ¾ teaspoonful of semen may provide little more than a few calories of nutrition.”
The average amount of semen released during ejaculation averages between two and five ml, the equivalent of about one teaspoon. But this stuff pack a punch—there are nearly 15 million to 200 million sperm in an average milliliter of semen.
True, men can produce sperm throughout their entire lives. But it isn’t always viable. Dr. Reitano says that according to one study, sperm produced by men over age 52 were more likely to be abnormal than the sperm of younger men. Young guys also produce more sperm per ejaculation. “Semen production is highest in men in their 20s or so, but can decrease slowly starting at any point from that age onward,” he says.
Precum, or the pre-ejaculate fluid that comes out of a man's penis when he's turned on, contains barely any viable sperm. “Most of the evidence leans toward pre-ejaculate containing no sperm, or only very tiny amounts of sperm,” Dr. Reitano says. “What sperm is found [in precum] tends to be poorly formed and immobile. Men are considered infertile if they have too little sperm, so the tiny amounts that may be found in pre-ejaculate are extremely unlikely to result in pregnancy.” (Good to know, but it's probably wise to make sure the stuff doesn't get inside you if you really don't want to get pregnant.)
So what's the point of precum? It's nature's lube, in part. "Pre-ejaculate is a slightly basic secretion released from glands called Cowper glands," Dr. Reitano says. "The clear secretion protects sperm from the acid environment of the urethra and the vagina, as well as lubrication to some degree."
Stinky semen could be indicative of a larger issue. “Foul-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 color,” says Dr. Reitano. “On occasion, a broken blood vessel in the urethra or prostate can make semen appear brown or reddish.”
What is semen supposed to smell like? "Semen can typically have a slight ammonia or bleach-like odor," he adds. "Anecdotally, semen can have a slight change in odor or taste with changes in food, meaning eating asparagus may result in a similar change in the odor of semen as noted with urine."
Sperm can live up to five days inside a woman's reproductive tract, just waiting for that egg to appear so they can fertilize it and do what nature intends them to do. But outside of the body, semen can’t survive very long. “If ejaculation occurs in a hot tub with chemicals, the sperm can live no more than a few seconds. If it is deposited into a bath of warm water that is approximately 98 degrees, [they] may live for a few minutes,” Dr. Reitano says. “If it is deposited into the air and onto a hard surface, it will live until the semen is dry. The sperm dies when that occurs.”
For whatever reason, semen seems to be the latest trend in skincare. But Dr. Reitano says that while it's likely safe, it's probably not going to benefit your skin in any way. "Semen doesn’t have any inherent components that are bad by nature," says Dr. Reitano. Stick to acne products to clear up those breakouts instead.
Remember the woman who went into anaphylactic shock after her partner ejaculated in her mouth? Yeah, so do we. Unfortunately, semen allergies are possible. Says Dr. Reitano: "
This is a rare condition but it exists. The allergic reaction is usually localized and causes redness or swelling at the point of contact—usually the vagina." To be precise, it's the proteins in semen that trigger the allergic reaction.
"Another way a partner can be allergic to their partner's semen is if she has an allergy to a particular food or antibiotic, as examples, and the male partner has eaten the food or is taking the antibiotic to which she is allergic," adds Dr. Reitano. "The allergen accumulates in the male's semen, and when it is placed in the vagina, the allergen is absorbed into the bloodstream. The female partner may develop widespread hives or worse." Yikes!
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Oct. 5, 2010, 3:18 p.m.
Guys start producing spermatozoa (or sperm, for short) at the onset of puberty. Puberty starts at different times for different people. Boys usually start puberty when they’re around 10 or 12 years old, though some start a little sooner and others a little later. There’s a cool word for when a guy first produces sperm — spermarche (SPERM-are-key).
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Young woman looks up 'swallowing semen' in sex education advert
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