Squirmy sperm

[tamansfield]

Okay so I was messing around a little with my boyfriend and basically I had on jeans and he was naked. I'm a little concerned because I am not sure of a sperms capability. My question is, can they travel through articles of clothing such as jeans or underwear? Is there a certain type of material that they can/cannot travel through? I haven't learned much about this so I'm just curious:)

[Heather]

"Squirmy sperm" creates a pretty adorable visual image.

Sounds like you could stand to start by reading up on the basics about all that's required -- including a pretty clear path to the cervix, which materials like clothing or condoms get in the way of -- for human reproduction to happen. So, why don't you start here: Human Reproduction: A Seafarer's Guide

If you still have questions after reading through that, feel free to pop back round to this thread.

Too, if you want to talk about how to talk to your boyfriend about choosing a pace for sexual activities that doesn't put you ahead of having the information you need first to even know if you feel okay about doing something, we can certainly talk with you about that, as well.

[tamansfield]

Thank you for getting back with me! I read the article, and I got quite a bit of information out of it! Although, it didn't exactly answer my question on if sperm can travel through any type of clothing. They article said that a distinct barrier would be clothing, but what type of clothing? Jeans, leggings, underwear?

[Heather]

It 's pretty clear on that. That was an awfully fast read ( and I read very fast myself!), for a pretty long article with a lot of information. How about you give it another go, and maybe take 20 - 30 minutes with it?

You might want to focus on this section:

Semen and sperm are not the same thing. Semen (seminal fluid or plasma) is a fluid from the seminal vesicles, the prostate gland, cowper's gland, and the bulbourethral glands, which all comes through the urethra and out of the opening of the penis during ejaculation. Ejaculation most typically happens right around or nanoseconds after orgasm, but not always: sometimes people ejaculate without any orgasm.

Semen almost always contains sperm cells but it is not, itself, just made up of just those cells. Less than 5% of semen is sperm cells. The rest is a whole bunch of things, all essential for sperm to do anything: proteins, enzymes, acids, and a good deal of fructose (a sugar), a needed energy source for sperm cells. The fluid of semen is how sperm cells can move out of the penis, and through the vagina. Just like a fish can't swim out of water, same goes for sperm without the fluid they're ejaculated with. But it does more than that. It supplies nutrients and energy those cells need to be able to do anything at all, and it also neutralizes things that create problems for sperm like traces of urine and the vaginal environment. The push an ejaculation gives that fluid also matters.

A person with testicles ("balls") usually produces millions of sperm every day. They're microscopically small: we can't see them without a powerful microscope. When ejaculation occurs -- and this is something a person with a penis knows has happened, not something they can't know or have to guess at -- there's usually around a teaspoon or so of that semen, which can contain hundreds of millions of sperm. Sperm cells are very fragile and super-duper sensitive. They are not resilient to things like being moved around from place to place -- like from penis to hand, then hand to vulva -- to changes in temperature, or to environments besides the testes and special lab conditions designed to protect them.

So, let's say we have an available ovum, and all the other conditions on that person's body to make pregnancy even possible, and someone with a penis has also ejaculated inside the vagina or very nearby (and by nearby, I mean on the genitals, not on someone's thighs, chest or a few feet away). For the next step to happen after that, sperm cells need to get through the vaginal canal, and then into the cervix. But they often can't do one or both of those things.

During some parts of the fertility cycle, for a person with a vagina and uterus, cervical mucus is too thick and pasty for those cells to be motile (to move), and the opening to the cervix isn't open enough for them to get inside of it. Sometimes, sperm cells have to wait within the vagina or other parts of the reproductive system because they got there too soon: an egg, and the other conditions needed, weren't there for them yet. Sperm cells can potentially stay within the vaginal environment for a few days: they can be the ones waiting for the phone to ring, as it were. Other times, there's just not enough semen or viable sperm cells in that semen for these next steps. In a lot of ways the vagina, cervix and uterus aren't friendly to sperm cells: that system even "attacks" some sperm cells to try and counteract them similar to the way our bodies try to counteract unhealthy bacteria or other potentially harmful visitors.

Something to think about is this: let's say you spill a bunch of water on the crotch of your jeans. Is that water going to be able to get inside your vaginal canal and go up to the back of it? Nope. Same goes for semen, and the sperm cells inside of semen, and semen is even less fluid than water is.

How about we talk about how to make sexual choices based on where you're really at? Sounds like this last one was one you made before you had the information you needed to make it.

[tamansfield]

I realize that my post made me sound a bit naive which I'm really not. I just seem to have an over active mind and think about stuff that's not even logical. I read through the article and it seems that I can confirm the fact that sperm cannot get through articles of clothing because of the lack of fluid. Can you confirm this? In the case I experienced, ejaculate was not even on my clothing, it was pre ejaculate fluid. I believe that the sperm (if there were any present in the pre ejaculate) could not have traveled through jeans because of the lack of fluid. Would this be true? Another thing, if the clothing (such as jeans) is saturated in semen then would it be possible for sperm to get through? I've seen different things about this and thought I'd ask:) I'm not really concerned with the fact if it can get into the vagina, I'd just like to know if sperm can get thorough a layer of clothing. Thank you for your help!

[Eddie C]

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