This is how long sperm can last in your vagina

If you think peeing right after sex is going to make life simple, then we have a truth bomb to drop on you. Turns out that sperms can last for a long time, finding a place in your vagina. And yes, this means that if you have unprotected sex, even after peeing or cleaning your vagina, there’s a high chance that you might get pregnant – yes, because everything depends on the strength of your partner’s sperm. 

Before we talk to you about the timeline of a healthy sperm, here’s an exciting piece of information that you must know about.

According to Dr Ila Gupta, senior consultant IVF specialist and clinical director of Ferticity Fertility Clinics, Delhi, in the case of a natural pregnancy, one must have the normal semen parameters. Millions of sperms are required to fertilize one egg.

Did you know there are 100-600 million sperms in a teaspoon of semen?

It sounds like a scary figure, but the chances of you getting pregnant depend on:

Also Read

9 home remedies for an itchy and dry vagina Read Now

• Volume
• Count
• Motility
• Morphology 

If any of these parameters are deranged, it makes the natural conception difficult. That’s when you need advice from a fertility specialist to know all about the reasons and treatment for low sperm count and motility.

You will be shocked to know that out of these millions of sperms, only 10-20 sperms reach the egg.

Now let’s see how long a sperm can last inside and outside your vagina 

Sperms can survive outside the body, only for 20-30 minutes. In a hot environment, sperm survival is only for a few seconds to minutes.

AHA - Ask Healthshots Anything An AI-powered chatbot to answer all your health-related queries Chat Now

After ejaculation, the sperm survives for about three to five days in the female genital tract. Secretions from the genital tract provide nutrition to the sperm. From the ejaculated semen in the vagina, the progressively motile sperm swims through the cervical secretions to the uterus, and then to the fallopian tube to fertilize the egg. 

“So the percentage of fast forward motile sperm is important to fertilize the egg. To achieve pregnancy, sperms have to be present in the genital tract around the time of ovulation, as egg life is very short (few hours) as compared to sperm,” says Dr Gupta. 

Sperms can survive for years in the frozen state, if temperature is stable (- 196 degree C). They are frozen for various reasons or medical conditions, which can have an impact on male fertility like undergoing fertility treatment, suffering from cancer or undergoing chemotherapy/radiotherapy. 

Apart from pregnancy, semen or cum could also be bad for your vagina

If your vagina smells funny after you’ve had sex, it’s a tell-tale sign that the semen that’s residing in your vagina isn’t healthy. In fact, it also means that it might be infected.

Do you know that after a male has ejaculated into your vagina, the semen will either seep out or dry up? If the semen is not infected, it certainly won’t ‘rot’ inside your vagina, thanks to its self-cleaning capabilities. But god forbid, if the semen is not healthy, it can disrupt the biome of your vagina killing the healthy bacteria. 

It can lead to problems like bacterial vaginosis, fungal, and yeast infections. If not treated on time, it can further spread and lead to UTIs and STIs.

So now you see how unprotected sex and unhealthy semen can wreck your vaginal health. That’s why, beware!