'Ugly' men have more sperm
Your chances of conceiving could be less if your man is better looking, say researchers
The better looking a man is, the more likely it is that he’ll release less sperm during sex, suggest British researchers.
For the attractive male, because he’ll attract more women and has more chances to procreate, each time he has sex it has less value. In turn, his body will release fewer sperm each time he has sex, so he’s able to spread it around further.
On the flip side is the ‘ugly’ man. He’ll attract fewer women and hence have fewer chances to have sex. Because of this, his sperm counts are much higher, to make the most of the few opportunities to procreate that come his way, say the researchers from University College London and the University of Oxford.
Whether the lower fertility of attractive men results in women avoiding good-looking guys who have sex too often is an area the researchers plan to investigate.
So far, the theory has only been proved in birds, including chickens, but the researchers think it could be the same for humans.
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“Human attractiveness is complicated and influenced by a number of factors, including cultural preferences. Nonetheless, ejaculate size and sperm quality are likely to have been moulded by similar forces - like attractiveness and the number of sexual partners - that are important in other species,” said Sam Tazzyman, from University College London.
It seems birds are the flavour of the month - yesterday, we reported on another bird-based study that researchers thought could apply to humans and the way we parent.
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