Does ejaculation really shorten the lifespan of men?

11.03.2011 | By: J. P.

Is it true that we emit our lifeforce every time we ejaculate and therefore we do not live as long as women?

Would you be willing to give up sex in exchange for longer life? (PhotoXpress)

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You have probably noticed yourselves the lack of energy and a feeling of tiredness after the ejaculation. Although you want to please your partner's sexual and emotional needs, all your body wants is sleep. The image of unsatisfied female, whose lover reaches climax, moans and helplessly collapses on top of her, is so common, that it became proverbial.

Don Juan, monastic and multiorgasmic worms

New York Times made a report in 1992 about a fascinating and troublesome research. Dr. Wyne Van Voorhies of the University of Arizona studied simple, yet useful worms, called nematodes, who share similar genetic and biochemical characteristics with humans and other mammals. First group was permitted to mate at will, which in turn demanded a steady production of sperm. These Don Juan-like worms lived only 8,1 day. The other group of worms was not permitted to mate. These worms, let's call them monastic, lived three days longer. The fact that the third group, consisting of multiorgasmic worms, who were not constantly producing sperm, but were able to mate at will, lived for almost 14 days – more than 50% longer than those worms who had to produce sperm, is even more fascinating! Similar researches suggest that ceaseless sperm production takes its toll on the male, perhaps due to the use of complex enzymes or biochemical processes with harmful byproducts. Times even suggests that the difference in male and female life expectancy can be attributed to sperm production. But there are also other, less plausible, theories which try to explain the imbalance with differences in lifestyle and hormones.

What does popular belief have to say on this matter?

Taoists, for them sexuality was an integral part of health, performed various sexual exercises, designed to enable an ejaculationless orgasm, as they discovered that male ejaculation drains their lifeforce, or as they call it – chi. Western wisdom agrees with them. Athletes have long since been aware of the feeling of weakness and numbness overcoming them after the ejaculation, so they usually skip any kind of bedroom activities the night before an event, artists follow their example. Trumpeter Miles Davis once said that he is willing to fight Mohammed Ali, if the latter has just ejaculated. The French have an omnious expression for orgasm – le petit mort, little death.

In his lifetime a man ejaculates more than a quintillion sperms

Simple mathematics can help you understand why a simple ejaculation presents such a burden to our body. An average ejaculation consists of 50 to 250 million sperms and an average man has around five thousand ejaculations in his lifespan. Any factory producing such quantities needs material, and in this case the material is you. Your body assumes that a new life is being made every time you ejaculate. Many animal and vegetal species begin to dye away after reproduction. Salmon dies shortly after spawning. Seed plants die away or go into hibernation, but if we prevent them from growing seeds they live longer. Men do not die after ejaculation, but maybe the laws of nature apply to us too.