Time of day: Sperm counts are higher in the morning. Excessive ejaculation and prolonged abstinence: Both are known to affect the number and quality of sperm. Intercourse every two to three days helps ensure optimal sperm count and health.
Writing in the journal Chronobiology International, the team of reproductive biologists report that semen produced early in the morning – before 7.30am – show significantly higher sperm concentrations, total sperm count, and percentage of sperm with normal morphology than semen produced at other times of day.
Related: How to make a baby: The quick and dirty guide
Dr. Frederick agrees that semen in the early morning (before 7:30 a.m.) has the highest sperm concentration, total sperm count and normal morphology compared to the other times of the day.
The chances of fertilization are highest within 24 hours of ovulation and one day beforehand. But because sperm can live for three to five days in the reproductive tract, it's still possible to get pregnant by having sex in the five days leading up to ovulation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) establishes a period of between 2 and 7 days of abstinence as optimal for achieving pregnancy. The more days of abstinence, the worse the sperm quality.
The next time you have sex, the number of sperms is not as much as the first time, but the quality of sperm remains stable, and that quantity is enough for fertilization to occur. This proves that having sex twice in a row is still possible to get pregnant if there is no reasonable protection.
Although a man's fertility can theoretically last until death, sperm production has been found to decline from around the age of 50. Although it is still possible to conceive a child, and many men do have children in their 50s or later, it may take longer for you and your partner to become pregnant.
Morning may be the best time to have sex for conception, at least as far as sperm are concerned. Some studies have suggested that sperm count and quality are slightly higher early in the morning, which may mean better odds of conception if they're deposited right after a good night's sleep.
Once the sperm enters the reproductive system, it can take about 30-45 minutes to reach the egg. For this, it is important to have a healthy sperm which has the right kind of motility to reach the egg and fertilize it. Once inside the body of a woman, a healthy sperm can live up to 2-5 days.
A sleep duration of 8–9 h has not been reported to reduce semen quality, but sleeping longer than 9 h has been associated with reduced semen quality in two studies with fertile men [8, 9]. However, sleeping longer than 8 h has also been associated with better semen quality in men suspected of infertility [13, 14].
Ovulation happens about 14 days before your period starts. If your average menstrual cycle is 28 days, you ovulate around day 14, and your most fertile days are days 12, 13 and 14. If your average menstrual cycle is 35 days ovulation happens around day 21 and your most fertile days are days 19,20 and 21.
"The first fraction of ejaculate is the most effective for conception." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 May 2015.
It takes just one sperm to fertilize a woman's egg. Keep in mind, though, for each sperm that reaches the egg, there are millions that don't. On average, each time men ejaculate they release nearly 100 million sperm.
You would imagine having sex daily or multiple times a day would increase the chances for the sperm to successfully fertilise the egg. However, sperm count can be significantly reduced by ejaculating daily. Abstinence has been shown to improve sperm count and sample volume when compared to daily ejaculation.
There is no specific frequency with which a man should ejaculate. There is no solid evidence that failure to ejaculate causes health problems. However, ejaculating frequently can reduce the man's risk of getting prostate cancer. Ejaculation can be through having sex or masturbating a few times a day.
Have sex regularly. The highest pregnancy rates occur in couples who have sex every day or every other day. Have sex near the time of ovulation. If having sex every day isn't possible — or enjoyable — have sex every 2 to 3 days a week starting soon after the end of your period.
According to a recent National Sleep Foundation study, women undergoing IVF who had a sleep schedule of about 7-8 hours per night were 25% more likely to conceive than those who slept nine hours per night. Those, whose sleeping schedules crunched down to less than seven hours were 15% less likely to become pregnant.
A trained expert checks your sperm count, their shape, movement, and other characteristics. In general, if you have a higher number of normal-shaped sperm, it means you have higher fertility. But there are plenty of exceptions to this. A lot of guys with low sperm counts or abnormal semen are still fertile.
The age where a man is most fertile is between the ages of 22 and 25 years. It is suggested that you attempt to have children before the age of 35. After this age, men's fertility begins to worsen with age.
Men also produce lower sperm counts as they get older. In general, fertility starts to decline for men when they're in their late 40s, with up to a 23% annual decline in fertility beginning at age 39.
Scientists discovered that there was pretty much no difference in the odds of getting pregnant between the group that got up and moved around and the one that went on short bed rest.
The concentration of sperm is what makes the semen cloudy and thick, so if your ejaculate is watery it is possible that you have a low sperm count. This doesn't mean you're infertile (so precautions to prevent pregnancy still need to be taken for couples that don't want to get pregnant).