To spit or to swallow? When it comes to oral sex, there is much debate around whether we should or shouldn’t swallow semen.
And now in a plot twist that we definitely didn’t have on our 2023 bingo cards, pop icon Christina Aguilera has shared her opinion.
Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Christina said: ‘I think swallowing is really, you know, a good thing… and it’s got a lot of protein.’
But when there are so many myths and rumours when it comes to sex, we wanted to know: is that actually true?
Dr Danae Maragouthakis, from Yoxly, an Oxford-based sexual health start-up, said the first thing to note here, is that there’s nothing wrong with swallowing.
‘There’s nothing wrong with it sexually,’ she says. ‘It’s not dirty, it’s not shameful, it’s totally a personal choice.’
So if your preference is to swallowing – is it actually good for you, as Christina implies?
Dr Maragouthakis tells Metro: ‘In semen you have a number of stuff, you’ve got the spermatozoa (the sperm) and then there are different components in that fluid that essentially nourish the sperm.
‘There are different secretions from different glands. The prostate gland, the bulbourethral gland etc.
‘There’s zinc, and there’s a little bit of vitamin C or ascorbic acid – but everyone believes there’s loads of vitamin c in sperm, and that’s not true at all.
And what about sperm as a protein source?
‘Essentially the average volume of semen or ejaculate is about 5mls, and the components of that semen will change with age and with health,’ says Dr Maragouthakis.
‘So not every man is going to produce the same amount of protein in their semen or have the same amount of spermatozoa in their semen.
‘The volume of ejaculate, will depend on the last time he masturbated, sometimes it’ll be a little bit more sometimes it’ll be a little bit less.
‘So in terms of the protein content, you’re going to get maybe half a gram to a gram of protein, depending on the man, in each 5ml volume of ejaculate. So on average, there is 250mg (or 0.25g) of protein in 5ml of ejaculate fluid.
‘If you compare that to egg whites for example, one large egg white contains 3.6 grams of protein so you would need to drink a couple of gallons of sperm, which I do not recommend, in order to make up for that protein content.’
So, if you were wondering, as says, the protein in semen ‘is not a substitute for a healthy balanced diet.’
And Dr Maragouthakis also warns that if you’re having unprotected oral sex, you could be at risk of STIs.
Facts about semen:
Each teaspoon of ejaculate is about 5 calories.
Ejaculate contains:
200 – 500 million sperm
fructose (a sugar)
acids (citric acid, ascorbic acid)
zinc
enzymes
protein
She says: ‘Sperm is bodily fluid and in the same way that other fluids like vaginal secretions saliva and sometimes blood, it can transmit STIs like chlamydia and gonorrhoea.
‘It’s totally a personal choice and personal preference but if you’re engaging in sex you should get tested regularly and practice safe sex.
‘If you don’t want to swallow you can always us a condom or dental dam.’
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