Here’s something you were told as you joined campus, wear a condom because if you don’t, she’s going to get pregnant. Here’s something you were probably never been told as a teenager: If its finals week and you’re super stressed out over trying to memorize the quadratic equation or understand the theory of Darwin, forget the condom and go for it, because in all likelihood, your swimmers won’t make it to the finish line.
That’s right: Sperm, like just about everything else, is negatively affected by stress. Exactly how stress affects your sperm isn’t yet known, but there are a few theories on what’s happening inside your dangly bits, where your swimmers find refuge. It may trigger a surge in cortical steroids, which alters your testosterone levels and the way in which your sperm is produced.
Another theory proposes that when you’re in a state of stress, you have a lot of free radicals, which impair your testicular functioning. “Your testicles don’t like an overabundance of free radicals at all. Free radicals induce impairment of testicular function and cause a marked reduction in number and quality of sperm production.
The good news is that there are concrete ways to combat stress-related sperm issues beyond, that is, not stressing. If they find inconsistency in hormonal functions, they have medication to balance hormones to help sperm motility and count.
