Question
Is regular masturbation or sexual intercourse harmful to fertility?
Answer
Regular masturbation and sexual intercourse are not harmful to fertility. To standardise semen analysis, the World Health Organisation states that there be a two to seven-day period of abstinence before the sample is collected. The longer period between the ejaculation, the greater the volume of semen and the higher the total number of sperm released. Ejaculating daily, or even more frequently, won’t cause any damage; rather, it will just decrease the number of sperm in each ejaculate, but over the period of a week, you’ll still make the same number of sperm.
The advice for people who are trying to get pregnant is that they should have intercourse at least every second day across the fertile week of the month.
Robert McLachlan
Healthy Male Medical Director
Prof Robert McLachlan is a consultant andrologist and has been integral to Healthy Male from its inception as Andrology Australia in 2000. He has been Medical Director since 2006. In November 2020, Rob was awarded Life Membership of the Endocrine Society of Australia. Over his 30-year career, he has been passionate about educating doctors and the community about male reproductive health, particularly to normalise discussion of sensitive topics and to encourage men to seek help from their GPs. A past president of the Fertility Society of Australia, he has a strong connection in fertility practice and has raised the profile of infertile men involved in IVF. Rob has received several awards for his clinical research and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2016 for services to medicine in the field of endocrinology.
