The contribution a male makes in creating a new human is often overlooked, maybe because it is the female who carries the child in her womb till birth. Males ejaculate semen, a male bodily fluid during coitus, which in turn carries sperm cells in it. The successful union of the human egg and the sperm cell creates a healthy embryo. During the gestation period the embryo slowly and steadily grows into a healthy and complete human baby. It is then born. The embryo cannot be created without the infusion of the sperm with the egg. Thus, the sperm is extremely important in human evolution and sustenance on this planet.
Here we have gathered some mind blowing facts about the sperm that you should know.
- The circumstances that lead to the discovery of sperms back in 1677 are still unknown. It had been discovered by a Dutch microscope maker.
- Sperms are about 0.005 centimeter long and invisible to the naked human eye.
- A man is constantly producing sperms, every day, every single second.
- The average healthy male produces 1500 sperms in a single second. In fact, every time a man ejaculates he releases almost a 200 million sperms.
- Ninety percent of the sperms released are deformed, i.e., they have two heads or two tails.
- Sperms carry both the female chromosome ‘X’ and the male chromosome ‘Y’, unlike the egg cell which carries both female chromosome ‘X’. Thus, the gender of the embryo depends on the sperm and the chromosome it carries.
- As only the DNA is required to start a new life, it has been found by the scientists in the laboratory that even a dead sperm cell can fertilize a egg in a female.
- Did you know that sperm contains calories? Yes, they do. A teaspoonful of sperm would have around 20 calories of energy.
- A compound contained in the sperm cell is spermidine, and this is responsible in slowing the ageing process and improving blood cells. Thus used for skincare.
- A person having an unhealthy body and lifestyle, with Body Mass Index (BMI) more than 25 will produce low quality and less quantity of sperms.
- A bad diet, especially eating a lot of sugary diet, processed canned food products, food devoid of proper nutrition and good fiber too are responsible for less sperm count. Obesity is also a cause of infertility amongst the males.
- A sperm can live up to five days in the vagina. This depends upon the friendliness of the vagina. Mostly, it lasts for about 1-2 days.
- The sperm cell is always kept three and a half degree Celsius lower than the normal body temperature of the man.
- An acrosome is a kind of hat the sperm wears, the oval shaped head of the sperm.
- A woman’s body naturally guards itself from the invasion of sperms and due fertilization of the egg cell in her body. It will try and flush the sperms out of the body.
- Only one sperm out of the 200 million ejaculated at a time will win the race of reaching the egg cell first and infusing it, i.e., fertilizing it.
- If we were to make a line-up of the sperms ejaculated at a single time from a man’s body, we would end up making at least a 6 mile long straight line.
- It was believed that sperms swim in a straight line, but it has been found that not all sperms do swim in a straight line.
- Wireless technology, strong radiations from electronic gadgets and towers, too much of heat results in bad quality and lower quantity of sperms.
- Sperms can be of different shapes and sizes. It takes almost two months to form a healthy sperm, though the male body is constantly producing it.
- 50% of the DNA is carried by the sperm.
There are a lot of myths surrounding sperms. One such myth is that frequent masturbation leads to low quality sperms and also lessens the sperm count, but this is completely untrue. In fact frequent ejaculation improves sperm quality. A single ejaculation contains only 5% of the sperms produced in the body.