Marijuana Boosts Sperm Count

Who knew? Smoking pot doesn’t just make sex more interesting; it can make it more productive. Make that reproductive. Researchers at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health have found that men who have smoked marijuana at some point in their life had significantly higher concentrations of sperm when compared with men who have never smoked marijuana. A Harvard news release reports that the researchers collected 1,143 semen samples from 662 men between 2000 and 2017. On average, the men were 36 years old, and most were white and college educated. Researchers used a self-reported questionnaire that asked the men a number of questions about their usage, including if they had ever smoked more than two joints or the equivalent amount of marijuana in their life and if they were current marijuana smokers. They found that about 55 percent said they had used marijuana; 44 percent claimed to be former smokers, and 11 percent said they were current smokers. Semen analysis showed that men who had smoked marijuana had average sperm concentrations of 62.7 million sperm per milliliter of ejaculate, while men who had never smoked marijuana had average concentrations of 45.4 million sperm per milliliter of ejaculate. Only 5% of marijuana smokers had sperm concentrations below 15 million/mL (the World Health Organization’s threshold for “normal” levels) compared with 12% of men who had never smoked marijuana. Wait, there’s more: the researchers also found that among marijuana smokers, greater use was associated with higher serum testosterone levels.