Men Who Want Children Should Skip the Hot Tub

Dr. Paul Turek was noticing that many of the infertile couples that he treated were unaware of the dangers of hot tub and hot bath use in regards to sperm quality and production. Upon doing some research, he found that not many statistics were published on this rumor to be passed along to his patients. He and his team decided to do their own study to see what they could find out.

In the study they used 11 men who had an average age of 36 and were infertile. The men were regular hot tub users. They studied sperm quality before the tub use and after. They contined the study for 3 months. Their results weren't surprising, but at least they were documented.

After 3 to 6 months, five of the men had an average increase in total motile sperm counts of 491 percent. "A large chunk of men who regularly take hot baths, sit in hot tubs or Jacuzzi's can improve their semen quality and possibly their fertility potential by simply discontinuing this activity," Turek said.

Five of the six men who did not see an increase in sperm count or quality were chronic cigarette smokers with a significant smoking history, whereas three of the men who had a good response were only occasional smokers.

"The message for men trying to conceive," Turek concluded, "is to take great care of yourself and treat your body like a temple, as sperm production in particular is very sensitive to overall male health. It makes sense, given that a normal healthy man makes 1,200 sperm per heartbeat. This is a fast running engine that needs a healthy body to keep up that pace."

I guess that they should still be sticking to cold showers if they want to have a baby on the way.