Abstaining.

[Navywife620]

So when my DH abstains there is still a good amount of sperm ( sorry TMI) does the amount not reflect the actual sperm count? Or could abstaining not work for him?

[LolaInLove]

You mean the semen (the liquid part)? It's the swimmers in there that matters, but I would *guess* that the higher volume of semen, the more sperm are in there, but I could be wrong. That's a good one for Google, or Atomic!

[Navywife620]

Yes I mean the liquid part. I guess I will wait for more replies and google at the same time!

[iluvmyman]

It seems to me that this link says semen volume has no correlation to sperm count. But if anyone has more knowledge please post it.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7118266

After a vasectomy, semen is only supposed to drop 5% and no longer contains sperm. Semen comes from a different part of the male anatomy then semen so it seems reasonable but I'm just reading from the internet.

While googling this, I came across a study that suggests sperm count may be affected annually by temperature and also suggested that sperm count is highest in winter and lowest in summer due to temps. Interesting but it makes sense.
http://www.harryfisch.com/pdf/SpermCountsBirthRates.pdf

You probably already know this but Sperm count is supposed to highest (which favors boys) when you abstain 2-6 days. At Day 4 of abstinence sperm count s/b the highest but Day 7 will be low. Try to hit that Day 4 or 5 sweet spot for the highest semen.

[Navywife620]

I want sperm count to be the lowest since we are going to TTC girl . I just have noticed the actual volume of sperm is still a lot when he abstains. I thought maybe that meant that maybe it wasn't lowering his sperm count.

[atomic sagebrush]

So when my DH abstains there is still a good amount of sperm ( sorry TMI) does the amount not reflect the actual sperm count? Or could abstaining not work for him?

That is the semen, not the sperm. Sperm are too tiny to see but they hang out in the semen until they get into your vagina and then they swim off to find the egg. The amount of semen doesn't mean anything in terms of his sperm count - a guy can have tons of semen and have no sperm and be totally infertile. Even guys with vasectomies make semen.

[atomic sagebrush]

I want sperm count to be the lowest since we are going to TTC girl . I just have noticed the actual volume of sperm is still a lot when he abstains. I thought maybe that meant that maybe it wasn't lowering his sperm count.

The volume of his SEMEN is still the same but that doesn't tell you anything about the sperm count. There's no correlation between semen and sperm count, they are made in different parts of of the testicles even.

PS - thx for the study iluv, I hadn't seen that one before!