Sperm and intelligence
Here’s another example of an uninteresting finding dressed up to make it almost seem newsworthy. In this article, it’s not clear how they are assessing sperm quality. Probably the more relevant measure of quality is the actual function, not just some parameters relating to how the sperm LOOKS. In any case, this is a mildly interesting bit of trivia and nothing that should change anyone’s decisions. Women should seek intelligent mates if that’s what they want, but not if they’re specifically after better sperm. Furthermore, reading, doing puzzles and doing things to stimulate the brain would not be expected to improve sperm parameters. I can think of a few of our patients in which the husband is a super-genius, but yet, the sperm is not too good.
To quote the article:
Dr Allan Pacey, a male fertility expert from Sheffield University, said: ‘The fact that it’s possible to detect a statistical relationship between intelligence and semen quality in adult men probably says more about the co-development of brain and testicles when the man was in his mother’ womb, and therefore how well they both function in adult life, rather than suggesting that playing Sudoku can somehow stimulate more sperm to be produced.
‘The improvement in semen quality with intelligence observed in this paper is small and therefore it is unlikely to have a big impact on the ability of men of different intelligences to conceive.’
