How long can sperm survive in water?

After a normal man ejaculates, if the sperm is outside the body in a blanket or other dry, air-exposed environment, it will generally die within a few minutes or tens of minutes. However, if it is in a sterile environment at 36°C human body temperature, the sperm can survive normally, usually for several hours. After the sperm is discharged into the female reproductive system, during the process of movement to the uterus, it is currently believed that it can survive for up to 72 hours.

In addition, the current cryogenic freezing sperm technology can also make the sperm survive longer. The longest record of frozen sperm that can be used for IVF and obtain reproductive ability is 21 years of storage. So this clearly raises a piece of knowledge. Often, if both parties want to have children, they must have sex on the day and time of ovulation, thinking that only in this way can they increase the probability of pregnancy. In fact, this understanding is a little one-sided. Male sperm can survive in the female body for up to 72 hours, that is, 3 days and 3 nights, and sperm and egg have enough time to combine. As long as regular sex is carried out around the ovulation period, it is conducive to pregnancy.

After the sperm is discharged from the body, if it is in a dry environment, it will die within ten minutes. Because the sperm has nothing to provide it with nutrients and substances, the sperm is just a small single cell, and it will soon dry up, break down, and then die. If it is in the environment of cell culture fluid outside the body, such as during the process of artificial insemination, after the sperm is taken out, it is placed in an incubator with cell culture fluid added. At this time, in an incubator with a suitable survival temperature of 37°C for sperm, the sperm can survive for up to 3 days.

Therefore, it is important to consider the living environment and temperature of sperm. If sperm is in ordinary water or in a bathtub or tub, it should not be able to survive in this kind of water. Because the plasma osmotic pressure and environment in this water cannot consider the survival standard of sperm, sperm will die immediately after entering.