Is it Safe to Swallow Semen?

Whoever said variety is the spice of life surely had sex in mind as well. Varying sexual techniques keeps a couple interested in sex besides nurturing precious intimacy with each other. And one of the sexual techniques which couples find especially pleasurable is oral sex. However the ejaculation of semen which a male orgasm brings on may raise some concerns in women. Here are thus a few facts about semen and whether it is safe to swallow it.

What happens when semen is swallowed?

The swallowing of semen is usually a consequence of oral sex upon a man which is also known as fellatio. If you happen to give your man oral sex or a blow job and he ejaculates upon an orgasm, you can either spit out the semen or swallow it. Often women are concerned about the safety of swallowing semen, both from the conception as well as sexual health points of view. The thing to remember is that upon swallowing, semen and sperm go down into your stomach, where they are digested with all your other food. There is no passage connecting your stomach to your ovaries. So you cannot get pregnant merely from swallowing sperm.

What are the dangers?

However if your male partner has a sexually transmitted disease, it is possible for you to contract it by performing oral sex on him. The most common example of such sexually transmitted infections (STI) are HIV (Human Immunodeficiency virus) and Hepatitis B and C viruses, herpes, Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and genital warts from oral sex. All of these – with the exception of HIV, herpes and genital warts - can be cured with antibiotics, but even then an STD is bothersome, painful and in extreme cases, poses risk to other organs in the body as well. While a lot of progress has been made in managing HIV positive condition, there is still no cure for this fatal disease.

Also, there are some studies that suggest that vaginal absorption of semen can accelerate the development of an already existing cervical cancer. This occurs due to the prostaglandin present in semen1.

Why semen may be good for your health?

If your male partner has no STDs, hypothetically swallowing his semen may even be beneficial. In fact if you plan to have a baby with the man in question, it can also lower the chance of miscarriage. The above mentioned source is actually a 2000 abstract from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which showed that oral sex and swallowing sperm is correlated with a diminished occurrence of preeclampsia. Some women are infertile or lose pregnancies due to miscarriages due to their inherent presence of antibodies that destroy the proteins or antigens present in her sexual partners semen. By having your body recognize the antigens in your partner’s semen, you can reduce the possibility of an inappropriate immune response.

Also, semen is full of protein, minerals like zinc and calcium, some fructose sugars as well as other nutrients and enzymes that help the sperm to survive to facilitate successful fertilization. Moreover it has few calories, and for all these reasons perfectly safe to swallow unless your male partner is carrying a sexually transmitted disease.  Again according to some experts, some of the helpful chemicals in seminal plasma include testosterone, estrogen, prolactin, opiod peptides, oxytocin, serotonin, melatonin, and norepineprine3. These chemicals are proven to reduce anxiety and depression as well as elevate mood, concentration and energy levels. While till now, these beneficial effects of semen were thought to act only when deposited in the female vagina, it is now believed that the same useful effects can be garnered upon swallowing semen, usually at the climax of oral sex.

Apart from this, you can safely swallow your own semen. You can't catch a disease from yourself, only from other people. However it is possible to spread your own germs to new, and perhaps more vulnerable, places on your body, like for example the virus responsible for infection like genital warts can be spread to the mouth upon swallowing semen from an infected source, including your own.

In the end there are no inherent dangers in swallowing semen unless the source partner carries a sexually transmitted disease. other than this, oral sex and swallowing semen are matters of sexual choice which are best discussed by partners in an environment of love and mutual understanding.

Reference:

1. PubMed.Gov - Correlation between oral sex and a low incidence of preeclampsia: a role for soluble HLA in seminal fluid?