Answer:
by Konstance McCaffree: (05/29/2004)
Good question. And you are smart to check your information. The male body is designed to protect the sperm so that it can get into the female before it is killed or damaged. Sperm is actually very fragile and with out the semen, is not able to make the trip into the vagina of a woman.
Given that the sperm must make the trip down the urethra which also carries urine (acid-filled) out of the body, the male body has several ways to insure that sperm can survive. First, it makes millions of sperm daily so that there is plenty in each ejaculation. Secondly, the Cowper's gland (also known as bulbourethral)makes a liquid that comes down the urethra during sexual arousal BEFORE an ejaculation to clean out the acids caused by any past urination. That pre-cum does not have sperm in it unless there was an ejaculation just a few minutes before and there has been no urination since. There can be disease germs though, so this is not protection against the transmission of sexually transmitted infections.
This information is available to you in the book Contraceptive Technology by Robert Hatcher, et al 17th Edition. The research on sperm in seminal fluids is described there. You can check it for yourself and then know which web sites to believe.
Thanks again for writing and feel free to ask questions any time.Reviewed by Sexual Health Editorial Team
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