SEXUAL AROUSAL AND THE QUALITY OF SEMEN PRODUCED BY MASTURBATION

The influence of sexual arousal on the quality of semen produced by ma sturbation was investigated, One group of 29 patients referred to our andrology outpatient clinic (group A) and one group of 14 healthy pote ntial sperm donors filled out a questionnaire after having produced tw o semen samples, at least 1 month apart, by masturbation, Changes in q uestionnaire scores between first and second visit were compared with changes in semen characteristics between those two occasions to identi fy statistically significant correlations, A second group of 23 subfer tility patients (group B) were asked to produce a semen sample by mast urbation in a designated room at the hospital without additional sexua l stimulation, and a second sample while viewing a sexually explicit v ideo, Differences in questionnaire scores and semen characteristics ob tained with visual erotic stimulation (VES) and without VES were analy sed. In group A, the change in sexual arousal and change in intensity of orgasm correlated with change in semen volume (r = 0.38, P < 0.05; r = 0.48, P < 0.01 respectively), In healthy donors and group B, howev er, no such correlation was found, With VES in group B, significantly higher scores were given for 'feeling at ease/relaxed' (P < 0.01), 'se xual arousal' (P < 0.001), 'quality of erection' (P = 0.01), 'intensit y of orgasm' (P < 0.05), 'satisfaction after orgasm' (P < 0.05), and ' ease with which orgasm was achieved' (P < 0.001) with VES compared to without VES, There was no statistically significant improvement in sem en quality with VES compared to without VES, It is concluded that sexu al arousal has no significant influence on the quality of an ejaculate produced by masturbation, On the other hand, providing a patient with a sexually stimulating video is obviously a facilitative factor when the patient 'has to' produce a semen sample for analysis, The use of v isual erotic stimulation is recommended when patients and donors have to produce a semen sample in the uninviting surroundings of a fertilit y clinic.