IF YOU are having trouble getting pregnant, it might help to stop worrying
and simply concentrate on enjoying sex.
The question of whether good sex is better for making babies than less
pleasurable encounters has been hotly debated since two biologists at the
University of Manchester, Robin Baker and Mark Bellis, measured the 鈥渇lowback鈥�
of seminal fluid ejected by women after intercourse. They concluded that a
well-timed orgasm can greatly increase the chance that sperm would be retained
in a woman鈥檚 reproductive tract (鈥淭he subtle side of sex鈥�, New
杏吧原创, 14 August 1993, p 24).
Other researchers have criticised their measurements as too indirect to say
anything definitive about fertility. So Jacky Boivin of Cardiff University,
whose results were presented at the BA meeting, carried out a more direct
analysis鈥攎easuring the quantity of sperm in cervical mucus.
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Boivin examined the cervical mucus of 71 women within two to three hours of
their having intercourse. The women were screened to exclude those with unusual
mucus and their partners were screened to rule out those with low sperm
counts.
She also gave the women a questionnaire asking them to rate various aspects
of the sex they had just experienced, such as the intensity of sexual feeling,
their level of arousal, the total duration of the sexual encounter and the
quality of their orgasm, if they had one.
Boivin used the results to divide the women into three categories according
to how much they reported enjoying the sex. She found that nearly half of those
in the group with the lowest enjoyment had virtually no sperm in their cervical
mucus. Among women in the group with the highest enjoyment, only 10 per cent of
the women had no sperm in their mucus.
Boivin doesn鈥檛 think that orgasm and sexual enjoyment are vital for
fertility. 鈥淕enerations of mothers have never experienced orgasm,鈥� she points
out. But for couples having trouble conceiving, she suspects that whether or not
they enjoy good sex could sometimes be the difference between success and
failure.
Baker, who has since left his university position to pursue a career writing
on biology, welcomes Boivin鈥檚 results. 鈥淚t is a nice addition to studies like
ours and suggests that what goes on during sex does have an effect on the number
of sperm retained,鈥� he says.