https://youtu.be/-YzoomviSBE
Today we're going to talk all about how to increase semen volume. My name's Dr. Rena Malik. I'm a urologist and pelvic surgeon, and let's get right into it.
TRANSCRIPT
How Big is a Normal Load or Semen Volume?
The average amount of semen volume ranges from 1.5 milliliters to five milliliters. That basically is about a third of a teaspoon to a full teaspoon. That's not a lot of volume.
A lot of times people think that their volume needs to be really abundant for a number of reasons. One is because they've seen on pornography where they have really large loads. And I want to tell you this, these are production quality enhanced videos that are created with special effects to make the loads look larger. So, they are definitely abnormally large and many people mistakenly believe that the amount of volume they produce is associated with their fertility, their virility, their masculinity, and that's absolutely not accurate.
Factors Affecting Semen Volume
Semen volume can vary due to a number of different things that we're going to cover in this video, but you might be surprised to know that only 5% of your ejaculate is sperm. That's what's created by the testicles, but they are then combined with other fluids. One is from the seminal vesicles and the seminal vesicles' sole function is to create fluid that allows the sperm to survive in the vagina, which normally has a very acidic environment. Also, there's prostatic fluid, which also creates fluids that allow your sperm to move easily through the vagina. And also, there's a little bit of fluid from these small little glands near the urethral opening called the bulbourethral glands. These create a little bit of lubrication to allow the sperm to move. So, as I mentioned, because only 5% of that volume is sperm, if you have a problem with the amount of sperm you're creating, it's not often going to be shown as a low sperm volume.
Of course, it can be. And so, if you're concerned and you're trying to be fertile and you're having issues, it's really important to see an infertility specialist or urologist who's done a fellowship in infertility. The other thing that helps it look like a larger load is the force of the ejaculation, and this force is associated with the amount of contraction the muscles create that are located around the urethra and the pelvic floor that help force that fluid out. In a young healthy man, it can be as fast as 31 miles per hour and can project anywhere from six to nine inches away. However, this can decline with age, and so that brings me to reasons why your semen volume or the force of the can decrease. One is age, and this is because one, those muscles can get weaker, and two is the prostate can get larger. And as the prostate gets larger, the vascularity to the prostate can reduce meaning that those cells that create the prostatic fluid are just not making as much.
And also, because the prostate enlarges when the fluid goes through the ejaculatory duct into the urethra, it can actually block that a little bit and create less of volume coming through the urethra itself. Other causes of reduced ejaculatory volume can be due to just genetics. You have the genetics you have and you can't really change those. Also, it can be due to hormonal changes. So, we actually know that low testosterone is associated with a reduced ejaculatory volume. However, supplementing testosterone doesn't necessarily increase your ejaculatory volume, so there's no need to go out and search for testosterone even if you have a normal testosterone because it's not going to help boost your ejaculatory volume. So, in addition to having low testosterone, there's other hormones that can cause low testosterone that can include high prolactin levels or low thyroid levels. So those certainly can be treated with medical care.
And so, if you're worried about your ejaculatory volume and you want to get those things checked out, that's very reasonable. Also, certain medical conditions like diabetes or spinal cord injuries can cause either retrograde ejaculation or ejaculation, which can then reduce the volume of semen that's produced. And the last thing that can cause a reduced ejaculatory volume is zinc. Zinc is a very important nutrient in testosterone production. How that zinc works in your semen is that your prostate produces citrate, which then binds to that zinc. When you have low zinc in your body, your prostate but doesn't get the signal to create more citrate, and then inherently your prostatic fluid volume decreases. However, there hasn't been a ton of data suggesting that zinc supplementation actually increases semen volume. So that moves us onto to, what can you actually do to increase your semen volume?
How to Increase Semen Volume (Hyperspermia)?
Before I get into ways to increase your ejaculatory volume, I want you to think why exactly do you want to? Is it because it's actually associated with more pleasure for you or for your partner? Or is it just something that you think you need to have? Because in a 2018 study that surveyed 240 women, only 13% of them actually felt that having a bigger load or increased ejaculatory volume affected their pleasure at all. The large majority of women, as I've mentioned in several recent videos, is derived pleasure from their clitoral stimulation, and that's how the large majority of women obtain orgasm and reach climax. And so, in those cases, if you can get them to achieve climax, then it really shouldn't matter how much volume you're producing. And similarly, if you're able to reach climax and reach orgasm, does it really change if you have a larger load?
The first thing is hydrate. So just like anything else in the body, if you drink more, you're going to have more fluids. So that may mean you will have more urine volume, but you'll also have more semen volume. And it's important to use fluids that will actually hydrate you. Water is great. You want to avoid things like caffeine or alcohol, which can actually work as diuretics and they can over time cause you to pee more than you're putting in and actually slowly dehydrate you. The other thing you want to do is quit smoking. And if you're drinking excess alcohol, you want to slow that down as well. This is because both of these things can negatively impact semen volume and fertility and there's so many other health benefits with reducing alcohol consumptions and quitting smoking. Specifically, a lot of you guys are concerned about keeping long-lasting erections, well smoking is going to reduce the ability for you to continue to have good strong erections over the course of your lifetime.
So, if that's not enough and I don't know what else is, but you got to quit smoking today.
Next thing is there is some data that suggests that having extended foreplay can increase your ejaculatory volumes. As I've talked about in my recent video on ways to boost pleasure, increasing foreplay can not only boost pleasure for you but your partner as well. So why not increase foreplay, have better orgasms, and have more ejaculatory volume.
And lastly, a great way to increase ejaculatory volume is to wait between ejaculations. They've looked at studies and they've found that every day you wait increases your ejaculatory volume by about 12%. What people generally recommend is two days or 48 hours, and then after about five days, you're not really seeing much of a benefit after that. So that's a great way of course to increase your ejaculatory volume if you so desire.
And then you might be wondering, "Well, you said that reduced zinc will actually reduce volume, so should I be taking a zinc supplement?" While the data on zinc is sort of mixed and nothing has really looked at the volume of semen. There's one study at looking at younger men, which showed that lower zinc seminal concentrations mean that you had lower zinc in your body actually was associated with lower semen volumes. So, could zinc supplementation help? Maybe. But a more recent study in JAMA, found that zinc actually didn't have an impact on infertility and so probably it's not having a big impact on semen volume. So, I can't really say for sure, but it does make sense that if you are zinc deficient, which you can get tested for, then consuming high zinc foods, which can include things like oysters, some meats, some nuts, some legumes, those things can help boost your zinc and may boost your semen volume.
So, I think what's really important is optimizing your diet overall at least 80% of the time, aiming to have a clean diet, avoiding over-processed foods, sugars, white flours, and including lots of fruits and vegetables as well as complex carbohydrates and proteins, whether that's meat proteins or not meat proteins. But including those things in your diet is going to help you overall have a healthier life, healthier heart health, which will overall boost your sex life and hopefully increase your ejaculatory volume if you so desire. I hope you guys found this super helpful. As always, I'm going to take care of yourself because you are worth it.
