8.6 Improve Erection; Increase Sperm & Semen

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6. Erection, Sperm, Semen - Update 26 Aug. 2021

Sperm production is continuous starting age 10. The rate slows after age 50 but production continues into old age. Individual sperm are pushed along the paired left and right vas deferens (sperm tube from testes) toward each vas's ampulla (widened pouch of the vas before entry into penis urethra)  by pressure of sperm behind and by rhythmic muscle contractions. Six weeks pass between sperm leaving a testicle and arriving at its ampulla for storage before ejaculation.

   A vasectomy is tying and cutting both vas deferens to block sperm passage. Six weeks are needed for sperm distal to vasectomy to be used up; thus, a man may get a woman pregnant for 6 weeks after the vasectomy. Since sperms make up only a small part of the ejaculate, vasectomy has no effect on the appearance of the ejaculate.

   Sperm is stored in the ampulla, and the semen is stored in the seminal vesicles. At orgasm, the ampulla and vesicles separately contract. The initial incomplete mixing of sperm and semen results in the first jet having highest sperm concentration and this has been made use of in men with low sperm counts to improve fertility, using artificial insemination. The ejaculate is flung forward into urethra of the penis, where muscles by coordinated spasms eject several jets.

Erection is due to the filling up of the penis tissue with blood because of the sympathetic nervous system-induced widening of the penis artery (Beta-blocker medication may weaken it) that allows more blood to enter penis than to exit. It explains the weak or failing erection of old age, of cut nerve (error of groin hernia repair), or of diabetes. Erection during sleep is due to decreased brain inhibition.
   Sleep erection in a man complaining of inability to get erotic erection means his complaint is most probably due to neurotic inhibition or boredom.

   If imagining an erotic scene gives no erection, click 3.23 Saturday Sex  and read. If you are a young man, an erection should come within 1 minute; older takes longer. In a full healthy erection, the penis should point partly upwards, and may pulsate. 
   Men! Look at and feel your testes (testicles, the balls). Left one hangs a little lower than right but if you are in the freezing cold, the testes get drawn up and the scrotum wrinkles from contraction of its muscle. The balls are firm in youth and softer in old age. Asymmetric bump suggests cancer. One or both testes may become swollen and tender in infection, most famous in mumps.

    If you, a young man, wish to experience orgasm and ejaculation, grasp your penis firmly in hand and make pumping motions, imagining erotic situations. Your penis should harden and stiffen, and after a minute or two your motions should trigger off ecstatic spasms, and a jet or 2 or 3 of chalky, white, bland tasting (varies with age and condition) ejaculate should shoot from penis with, immediately after, loss of the erotic feeling. (Irving Berlin's song lyric: A man may be hot but he’s not when he’s shot!)

   A full erection is not needed for ejaculation or orgasm. At age 86, I could masturbate to orgasm, and ejaculate anytime with a half erection.

The first jet shoots out with the most momentum and literally ‘flies through the air with the greatest of ease’, like the daring young man in the old song.

   If you are scientific, collect the ejaculate; it is at first thick but within minutes it becomes thin like water. This is due to chemical in the ejaculated sperm and is required for pregnancy to occur; without it sperm would remain trapped in the thick semen fluid.

If you have a 5 ml syringe, you can measure 3 to 5 ml from a normal ejaculation. It gets less with short-interval repeats ejaculations, and after 2 or 3 you may only note the pleasure.

   How many orgasms can a man make in 1 hr?

   It depends on age, the erotic stimulus, and health. Why not try it, and see? A healthy young man with stimulating, active partner ought to manage at least 3, with a more than a 15mins break between each one.

   If you have microscope, put a drop of the ejaculate on glass slide and look under low power. If you are fertile, you will see a mass of active sperm, moving erratically. Under high power you will see that a sperm consists of head and tail, and it moves by twitching the tail. The movements seem random but are important in a sperm’s being able to get past the cervical mucus into a uterus, and again when a sperm closes in on an ovum in a uterine tube. Chemical attractant from the ovum helps the sperm zero-in and its plunging into the ovum and fertilizing it. Unhealthy sperm cannot move; when they are many they make one infertile.

   If you have technician skill, make a sperm-count. Great variation exists in the count: a normal man can show from 20- to 300-million sperm per ml; average range is 20-to 50-million per ml. A count below 10-million usually is cause of infertility. After age 40 sperm count decreases with age but in a normal man, a significant sperm count should continue into the 80s and 90s.

   There is high killing off of sperm in the female tract. Of 100-million spermatozoa that enter the vagina in ejaculation only about 10 make it to the far end of a uterine tube where one may fertilize the ovum.

   If you are uncircumcised, you should notice your penis tip is sheathed in foreskin that can be retracted to show the penis. Cheesy material, the smegma, is found under the foreskin; it can have bacteria and viruses that infect sex partners and cause sexual transmitted disease and cervical cancer. The rate of STD including HIV, and cervical cancer is lower in mates of circumcised men compared to those of uncircumcised men. It explains the reason for and popularity of circumcision beyond religious. (But in 2021 in USA there is a reaction against male circumcision) As a circumcised male since infancy, I can testify to its good result in my sex life and absence of penis problems.

   If you are uncircumcised, practice good hygiene by cleaning away the smegma with every shower or bath and also before sex play.

   Old men have problem getting a good, full erection; it more often needs direct partner assistance and erotic setting. Then you (the male with the complaint) may try Viagra. (Chapter 8.2  Erection & Orgasm,Viagra,)  You may also try several weeks of folic acid pill, 10 mg, and vitamin B12, 500 microgram, 3 times a day and also hot baths and then on the day you need an erection eat a steak dinner and it should enhance getting erection. (Of course, the vitamin B12 and folic acid is a more long-term treatment compared to the steak dinner and a hot bath which ought to be a night before a sexual tryst) It will make a good honeymoon recipe for an old man stiffing his young bride.                                                            An A.M. Erection in a 79 year-old who reads the Physician's Notebooks.
 If you the old man are taking medications like a beta blocker, a calcium channel blocker or an ACE inhibitor or blocker for high Blood Pressure, or anti-depressive, stop them a day or two before you plan a sexual tryst (No harm briefly stopping if the meds are only for mild hypertension; but of course ask your physician first).
END OF CHAPTER. To read on next, now, click 8.7 Masturbation: Safest, Best, Lowest Cost Sex