Unlike women, men continue to produce sperm for their whole lives.

Sperm production starts at puberty and continues for a man’s whole life thanks to regenerating stem cells in the testes. A single sperm cell takes approximately 74 days to make and grow to maturity. New waves of sperm production are starting every second meaning that there is a constant supply of sperm available – some men can produce 3000 sperm per second! You can’t run out by ejaculating too often but you also can’t save up sperm by avoiding ejaculation as mature sperm can only live for a few days in the testes before they die and are reabsorbed.

Sperm production can be disrupted more easily than you think

While a healthy sperm sample should contain at least 15 million sperm per ml, there are many factors other than sperm concentration which affect sperm function, their ability to fertilize and their ability to make healthy embryos. Sperm motility (how well they swim), sperm morphology (their appearance) and sperm DNA health are all key measures of quality and there are many ways that sperm production can go wrong. A man’s lifestyle has a big impact on testicular function and sperm are very vulnerable to damage both inside the testes and once they are ejaculated, something as simple as a hot bath, fever or too much cycling can drastically affect sperm production.

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