Sperm

Analysis and Comment (6)

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A father’s health prior to conception is just as important as the mother’s and has a serious impact on their child’s health. christyscherrer/flickr

Hey dad, your health affects your baby’s well-being too

By David Gardner, University of Melbourne; Natalie Binder, University of Melbourne, and Natalie Hannan, University of Melbourne

As a society, we put a significant emphasis on women’s health both immediately prior to and during pregnancy – and rightly so. A woman needs to prepare her body for the arduous nine months of gestation…
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Those who know the identity of their donor from a young age are less likely to experience psychological problems. Ron Wiecki

Rights of donor children must come before egg donation compensation

By Mhairi Cowden

University of Tasmania academic Meredith Nash recently argued on The Conversation that women who donate their eggs for fertility treatments should be financially compensated. It’s a risky and time-consuming…
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If an athlete believes sex will harm their performance, there’s a good chance it will. Slagheap

Sex before sport: does it affect an athlete’s performance?

By David Bishop, Victoria University

From the ancient Greeks to modern soccer World Cups and the Olympics, there has been an enduring belief by some athletes and coaches that engaging in sexual activity before athletic competitions may be…
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Chemical cues may act as matchmakers for sperm and ova. wellcome images

Ova here, mate: do sperm ‘smell’ their way to the best eggs?

By Jonathan Evans, University of Western Australia

On the face of it, a sperm’s work seems pretty straightforward: locate an egg and fertilise it. Job done. But in the world of a sessile broadcast-spawning marine invertebrate – immobile organisms in which…
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Lilting voice? No need to look on the dark side. Bisgrafic

Did Darth Vader have a low sperm count?

By Jack da Silva

Few individuals in the Star Wars universe inspired more fear than the Sith Lord, Darth Vader. But beneath the dark exterior, the commander-formerly-known-as-Anakin-Skywalker might have been hiding a dark…
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Poor sperm quality is a characteristic common to all men, not just some. Aldo Risolvo/Flickr

Old faithful: is monogamy the root cause of male infertility?

By Leigh Simmons, University of Western Australia

Infertility plagues one in six Australian couples, and in approximately half of these cases the problem lies in poor semen quality. The discovery that a man has poor semen quality can be emotionally challenging…

Research Briefs (4)

SpermComet: new male infertility test

Queen's University Belfast

A new test for male infertility, measuring damaged DNA in individual sperm, has been developed at Queen’s University Belfast…

Participants (18)