Just in case you were wondering… Information on the association between tea drinking and semen quality is limited…until now. A study conducted among health tea and non-tea drinking men concludes that sperm concentration and total sperm count are higher in those who consume tea.
As reported in Chemosphere on the ScienceDirect website, this conclusion comes from a cross-sectional and longitudinal study conducted between April 2017 and July 2018 in China with potential sperm donors screen through the Hubei Province Human Sperm bank. Participants were 1,385 (28.1% tea drinkers and 71.9% non-tea drinkers) and 6,466 sperm samples were included in this study.
Structured questionnaires containing sociodemographic information, daily habits, and sperm collection-related information was completed for each participant at interview, and samples were taken to examine the sperm parameters, including sperm volume, sperm concentration, sperm count, progressive motility, and total motility.
Compared with subjects who never drink tea, the analyses showed that sperm concentration and total sperm count were higher in tea-consuming subjects. A 10-year period or more duration of tea drinking significantly increased semen concentrations by 16.27%. Sperm concentration was increased in subjects with a frequency of tea drinking of 3 days or more per week or, among men who were occasional alcohol drinkers, when tea concentration was weak . No evidence of trend effects or interaction effects between tea consumption and sperm quality, respectively.
The study’s findings provide evidence that tea drinking may improve male reproductive health. Long-term, frequent, weak tea drinking tends to increase sperm quality among men with low BMI or health-related behaviors like smoking or alcohol intake.