This is not strictly a vagina question, but I hope it is still useful!
A commenter recently mentioned that sperm can live in the vagina for up to a week. This got me wondering if there is any decent research about on how long sperm can live. I'm thinking particularly on something like a hand or sheets, where semen might be spilled, or even mouth/lips as well as inside the vagina.
It would be just as interesting to hear any general comments about how possible it is to become pregnant from sperm transferred into the body by one of these strange routes. I've always believed it's technically possible, but don't know how likely it would be, and how much these are myths.
A commenter recently mentioned that sperm can live in the vagina for up to a week. This got me wondering if there is any decent research about on how long sperm can live. I'm thinking particularly on something like a hand or sheets, where semen might be spilled, or even mouth/lips as well as inside the vagina.
It would be just as interesting to hear any general comments about how possible it is to become pregnant from sperm transferred into the body by one of these strange routes. I've always believed it's technically possible, but don't know how likely it would be, and how much these are myths.
I've always heard that sperm may live if there is some amount of semen with it, and that semen is still wet (there are exceptions, like I believe in laboratory conditions where the sperm is isolated but kept alive for IVF and such). So if a pool of semen is still wet, like on the sheets or a hand, there's a good possibility that sperm will still be alive. Under normal conditions I don't believe it can live if it's dry or if it comes in contact with some substance that kills it - I think saliva kills it, I know stomach acid kills it, soap, hand sanitizer, etc.
That would mean all those sperm donors who ejaculate into a cup and live the lid off while they do up their pants that sperms all died?
Sperm died when it has dried up. The semen that sperm lives and travels in is full of protein. That's what allows them to swim and survive for long periods of time(2-5 days inside the vagina. If that protein dries up the sperm dies.
Sperm is sensitive to heat yes but it takes a lot and to heat up testicles to the point to kill every single one would be....quite excruciating for the guy.
The best method if you don't want to get pregnant is to go on birth control be it the pills or a shot in the butt whatever as well as the withdrawal method. Although there is nothing 100% effective if you're not ovulating and there's no sperm in the vaginal canal you cannot get pregnant.
Though if you're having willing and constant sex with someone it's good to keep in the back of your mind one day accidents could happen.
• Once sperm is dry, it's basically dead.
• If it remains in a pool of seminal fluid, such as in a guy's urethra after ejaculation, it may live for some hours, but then the seminal fluid itself becomes toxic to the sperm and it dies. (That one was boggling to me when I found it.) This is why pre-cum can carry live sperm out from a prior ejaculation.
• A lot of sites say sperm live in the female body -- the uterus and fallopian tubes, and most especially the latter -- for about 5 days. Other sites say up to 7. There is one (count her, one) researcher who believes that sperm have a lifespan that is dictated by the genetics of the guy, and claims to have -- under perfect lab conditions, presumably -- recorded sperm living as long as two weeks.
Generally, unless you shove a glop of fresh semen into your vagina, it's not likely to get transferred. (Mouth would have to have a large glop, because the digestive enzymes in the saliva would start killing sperm instantly, and only the "inner" ones might be protected for a while.)
I might babble more, but my concentration is shot.
I'd really appreciate some of the sources, if you do end up with some time later!
"Under optimum circumstances, and with optimum sperm health, a few sperm can live up to about five days, but that is rare. To provide a framework for understanding how sensitive sperm are - and how vital cervical fluids can be - a sperm exposed to air outside the human body will likely die within an hour, and most will expire in just a handful of minutes."
--http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com/s
"Given the most ideal conditions (ideal vaginal/uterine environments, fertile CM, strong sperm health, etc) sperm may be able to survive between six and seven days."
--http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com/s
"Sperm ejaculated into a woman's vagina remain alive in the mucus of the cervix and are able to fertilize an egg for three to five days. Sperm ejaculated outside the body usually live only a few hours."
--http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/preg
"Sperm may survive in the Fallopian tubes for as long as 7 days, but generally survives for around 3 to 5 days. This means that fertilization can occur even if the sperm are deposited as much as a full week prior to ovulation."
--http://www.thelaboroflove.com/article
"Research has shown that some sperm may survive in the Fallopian tubes up to 7 days, with the average amount of time being 3 to 4 days."
--http://www.babyhopes.com/articles/spe
Googling on how long does sperm live? gets a lot of hits. http://www2.oakland.edu/biology/lindema
Buncha links for sperm not being in precum: http://community.livejournal.com/vagina
"(If the sperm do not reach the woman's cervix within several hours, the semen itself becomes toxic to sperm and they die.)"
--http://adam.about.com/reports/000067_
I'm going nuts again trying to find the link to the researcher who claimed that sperm lifespan was variable based on the guy, and possibly much longer than even 7 days. I'd have thought I could search on my username and site:community.livejournal.com/vaginapag
Dr. Joanna Ellington is the researcher.
"Ellington describes the knowledge gap: “Throughout the past two decades, you have had medical textbooks teaching that sperm survive one to three days [in women]. There is no original source or study that provided this information—it’s just there. On the other hand, scientific journal articles were looking at real-life conception rates for people with long intervals—six days or more—between intercourse and ovulation.” She is now working with Spokane-area physicians, whom she describes as enthusiastic collaborators, to solve this contradiction."
"Ellington has modified her coculture system to study human sperm in contact with tubal cells. Her results suggest that many of the assumed details about human reproduction are incorrect. Her research team’s record for survival of human sperm is 10 days—far longer than the one to three days your doctor will tell you about—and sperm appear to be stored directly in the Fallopian tubes, as well as in the cervix."
[Her theory: Cells in the fallopian tubes extend sperm's lifespan. In the lab, they culture fallopian tube cells and cozy the sperm up to them, I gather.]
'“The Fallopian tube is not just a passive ‘pipe’ where sperm and eggs meet,” says Ellington. “Fallopian tube cells make a whole new set of products when sperm attach to them, and these products protect sperm and allow them to live at the internal body temperature of the woman, as opposed to living in the scrotum of men, while they wait for an egg to appear.”'
For more information, google on Joanna Ellington or </i>Dr. Joanna Ellington</i>.
Edited at 2008-10-24 02:50 pm (UTC)
Thank you so much, that's fantastic.
Confirms my suspicion that although most sperm might die almost immediately after ejaculation, there are likely to be some that hang around, so precautions are still required.
Did you know that it takes sperm 2 hours before they can fertilize an egg? Chemical changes have to happen first! (Yeah, I was reading a lot about sperm... *grin*)
Edit: URL above failed. http://media.www.kaleo.org/2.13219/sper
Edited at 2011-12-06 04:44 am (UTC)
This Google Link may live a bit longer, but here's the text, with some bits clipped out to make an attempt at Fair Use. The article is attributed to Barb Chamberlain.
I'd imagine they could live a little longer in the mouth, since it's warmer and moist. But you're actively swallowing and producing saliva, so I'd imagine they get swallowed and "washed away" fairly quick. So unless someone, say, gave a guy oral and didn't swallow, then IMMEDIATELY after started giving you oral, I doubt there's much cause to worry.
Light, oxygen, water, the wrong temperature... the list goes on forever as to all the things that kill it.
Once ejaculated, semen want to be in the vagina with fertile cervical mucous. I have read that with fertile cervical mucous, it is possible for the little bastards to live up to 7 days, although most lab results would indicate 5 as being more realistic.
In general it would be rather odd for them to live much past 2-3 days in the reproductive tract, however. As for sheets, lips, etc? A few minutes would be all it takes.
Does anyone have any references or links to sites that might collate this information?
As this is such an important issue (and I might change my behaviour as a result - I hadn't realised sperm was so killable!), I'd like to follow the current thinking about it.
http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/lif
The "expected" 48, "super sperm" 5 days, and "ultra-evolved super sperm" 7 days I read in "Taking Charge of Your Fertility", a WONDERFUL book. You can pick it up pretty cheap off of amazon, or any decently sized used book store should have a copy or two laying around, as well.
As for outside the body:
http://www.thelaboroflove.com/artic
The 48 hours is also backed up by my B.S. in Animal Sciences, aka Animal Husbandry. Even the semen that we would process for cooled, shipped semen seldom lasted more than 3 days. Often after 48 hours more than half were dead, and the motility of those alive questionable. And these are sperm that we have cooled (less waste production, energy using), put in a solution that feeds them, buffers them, put them in a container that protects them from light and water... Oi.
As for outside the body, let me put it this way: in the dark, in an incubator, in a sealed test tube, the horse sperm we collected would last no more than a few hours after ejaculation. And THAT is basically as good as semen is going to get it, and as long as you're going to get it to live, if it's ejaculated outside the female reproductive tract! If exposed to light, water, the air, etc., it dies VERY quickly.