Wearing Boxers May Be Better for Your Sperm Count, Study Says

Boxers or briefs? Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have new findings that may help settle the debate. Men who wear boxers tend to have higher sperm counts and better quality sperm than men who wear tighter underwear, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Human Reproduction. That finding may warrant a wardrobe change among men actively looking to father a child, says study co-author Jorge Chavarro, an associate professor of nutrition, epidemiology and medicine at Harvard. “It will definitely not harm anyone, and it will probably help the men who are likely to benefit from a small boost in their sperm counts,” Chavarro says. Based on the typical cycle of sperm production, he estimates it would take about three months of wearing boxers, after a period of wearing tighter options, to see sperm levels increase. The study was based on data from 656 men who were part of couples seeking infertility treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital between 2000 and 2017. The men answered questions about their lifestyle habits, including the type of underwear they typically wore, and provided semen samples for analysis. (Some also provided blood samples for hormone testing.) The researchers then compared the results of semen and blood analyses with lifestyle survey responses. The 53% of men who reported typically wearing boxers had roughly 25% higher sperm concentrations, 17% higher total sperm counts and 33% higher motile sperm co...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime Innovation Health onetime Source Type: news