While it is a crucial aspect of your sexual experience, the humble semen evolves with you as you age. Something that you laugh/ get teased about as a teenager to continually worrying if your swimmers can father a child — and finally to the age when you wonder — do I really know much semen?

So let’s go through some informational and yet fun-facts about semen:

It’s not the same as sperm

Whoa! Bet you didn’t know that. Spermatazoa or sperm is the reproductive cell, which resembles a tadpole. The stuff these tadpoles swim in is seminal fluid. And together these form the semen. This fluid protects the sperm until it enters the woman’s body

Semen is not formed in testes alone.

There are three different parts of the body where semen is formed. The process starts in the prostate, then moves to the seminal vesicles and finally to the testicles where additional fluid and sperm is added.

You produce them, but they live in a woman’s body.

Yep, the only cells that misters produce but these are designed to live in the uterus of the woman. Sperm enters the woman’s body and survives for 72 hours or more there.

You wish you produced money as fast.

An average male produces about 150 million sperm a day. A few thousand are produced every second… Now you wish you generated cash that fast!

Most sperm is pretty useless.

Research shows that almost 70-90% of sperm found in the semen is not fit for swimming.

Misters, we bet you don’t know this about semen.

Sperm forms in the human body only when you attain puberty. By this time, the body has already identified the danger or outside cells. That’s why the testicles shield it — giving the semen a privileged status, so the body doesn’t attack it.

Semen is a gel

When you ejaculate, the semen comes out in a gel form, but quickly converts to a liquid because of an enzyme called PSA. Research shows that the liquid form is more likely to sustain in the human body.

It is mainly water plus some protein.

Only 1% of sperm is there in the semen. It also has calcium, enzymes, minerals, etc. The semen also contains protein, which is similar to what you find in egg whites. But it is not a source of nourishment, and strangely it has about ten calories.

You ejaculate just 1.5 ml to 5.0 ml.

Yep, about a teaspoon is the only semen you ejaculate. However, this little amount is enough to give STD or sexually transmitted diseases.

Pre-ejaculate does not contain sperm.

Any form of pre-ejaculation contains no sperm. It is just a form of lubricant. However, if you had ejaculated earlier, then some semen from the tract may come out during the second pre-ejaculation.

Diet impacts semen

What you eat can impact the taste of the semen. However, there is no proof whether health supplements can increase semen content.

You will have semen despite vasectomy.

Though the fluid amount goes down, one does continue to have ejaculations with semen post a vasectomy.

Now, that’s a whole new load of information isn’t it!

Medically reviewed by Rishabh Verma, RP