Effect of abstinence on sperm motility in normal men

We investigated the effect of varying the length of ejaculatory abstinence on sperm motility by a method of automated videomicrography. Ten fertile donors to an artificial insemination clinic provided semen samples at randomly assigned intervals of 12, 24, 72, and 120 hours. All specimens were produced on site, immediately incubated at 37 degrees C, and processed in triplicate. In comparing ejaculates obtained after 12 hours' abstinence with those after 120 hours, semen volume and sperm concentration demonstrated a significant increase with increasing abstinence time (p = 0.03). However, no correlation between abstinence time and percentage of motility, lateral head amplitude, cross-beat frequency, mean velocity, and mean linearity was found. We conclude that motility does not change with ejaculatory frequency and that in normal men prescribed abstinence before analysis of semen for motility characterization may not be necessary.