A wide misconception is that frequent ejaculation causes male infertility. Guys can ejaculate daily and sperm counts do not drastically change to be lower. Why? Because healthy fertile men are making fresh new sperm every day. A study that looked at almost 10,000 sperm specimens found that in men with normal semen quality, sperm counts, and motility were normal, even in guys who ejaculated daily.
With that said, how often does a couple need to have sex around the time of ovulation in order to have the highest chance of achieving a pregnancy? The answer is three-fold. The lifespan of sperm, the “fertile window,” and detecting when ovulation is imminent.
1) Sperm can live for about 48 hours inside a female’s uterus, and so couple’s really only need to have sex every other day during this time. Is there an advantage to having sex daily or multiple times in a single day during ovulation? Well, maybe. Studies have shown a slight advantage with daily sex (37% pregnancy rate per cycle). Couples who had sex every other day had very comparable results with about 33% pregnancy rate per cycle. With that said, having sex daily has been shown to induce significant stress in couples, reduce sexual esteem, and associated with couple dissatisfaction. This in turn, can lead to psychological erectile dysfunction in men and make the whole process incredibly difficult. With that said, sex every 1-2 days is fine.
2) The next important point to understand is the timing of sex. The 5-7 days leading up to ovulation is known as the “fertile window” which is defined as the time where the sperm and egg have the highest chance of viability and survivability. In fact, sex is most likely to result in a pregnancy when occurring 2 days before ovulation.
3) Ovulation detection kits can help predict when ovulation is likely to occur. However, for some couples, accurately predicting ovulation can be difficult. So, to maximize the likelihood of conception, for women with regular menstrual cycles, increasing the frequency of intercourse to every other day soon after the completion of menses can really help.
References:
- Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Practice Committee of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Electronic address: asrm@asrm.org (2022). Optimizing natural fertility: a committee opinion. Fertility and sterility, 117(1), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2021.10.007
- Levitas, E., Lunenfeld, E., Weiss, N., Friger, M., Har-Vardi, I., Koifman, A., & Potashnik, G. (2005). Relationship between the duration of sexual abstinence
