Uncategorized

Handsome men may have poor semen quality

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Contrary to what one might expect, researchers have found that facial

masculinity is negatively associated with semen quality.

So, if you want to make healthy and intelligent babies, do not blindly

scan through handsome faces to decide your partner.

"As increased levels of testosterone have been demonstrated to impair

sperm production, this finding may indicate a trade-off between

investments in secondary sexual signalling (facial masculinity) and

fertility," researchers said.

Using a new technique called Phenotype Linked Fertility Hypothesis

(PLFH), the study investigated whether potential ability to select

fertile partners is independent of factors such as sex and cultural

background.

During the study, 62 Caucasian male students from the University of

Valencia, Spain, were recruited.

All the males were asked to abstain from sex and masturbation for

three to five days prior to the semen collection.

Semen analysis for 50 males was performed after liquefaction of

ejaculated semen.

Sperm motility and concentration were measured according to the World

Health Organisation criteria (WHO).

Each male subject was photographed for frontal and right-profile

facial photographs.

All the colour photographs were scanned and a black oval mask was

placed over the images to minimise the visual effect of hairstyle.

"Interestingly, males estimated the facial images to be more

attractive than females, suggesting that males generally overestimate

the attractiveness of other men to females," researchers noted.

This suggests that male facial cues may provide culture and

sex-independent information about male fertility.

"Our results also indicate that humans may be more sensitive to facial

attractiveness cues within their own populations," the authors

concluded.

The study appeared recently in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

Credit: IANS

Kofi Oppong Kyekyeku

I am a Ghanaian Broadcast Journalist/Writer who has an interest in General News, Sports, Entertainment, Health, Lifestyle and many more.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button
Close
Close