Many Nigerian couples use gels and lubricants to combat vaginal dryness during intercourse.
Lubricants are not only used to combat dryness in women though, men use lubricants while masturbating for semen collection at fertility clinics, and healthcare workers use the lubricants to ease the insertion of medical devices, including those used during fertility treatments.
In fact the most popular lubricants used in Nigeria is KY Jelly, some people also use Vaseline or baby oil.
While personal lubricants have long been used by Nigerian women to improve the comfort of sexual intercourse and to reduce the risk of vaginal tearing, new research shows that this may be detrimental when trying for a baby.
This new study says certain sexual lubricants can harm sperm and reduce the chances of pregnancy.
Researchers from State University of New York Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, examined the sperm motility, or movement, in test tubes in the presence of five commercial gels and four common oils. The semen samples from 22 healthy donors were examined over the course of an hour of exposure to each product.
The products looked at were Pre-Seed, two recalled K-Y gels (K-Y Tingling Jelly and K-Y Sensitive Jelly), K-Y Warming Jelly and Astroglide.
All the commercial lubricants above except Pre-Seed, a product specifically formulated for couples trying to conceive, impaired the sperm’s overall movement and their ability to move forward.
No negative impact on sperm was found from exposure to canola or baby oil. In contrast however, sesame oil, was associated with an immediate, drastic decline in sperm movement.
Surprisingly mustard oil had the opposite effect. When researchers mixed mustard oil with semen, the sperm became hyperactive and stayed that way for at least an hour.
Kazim R. Chohan, senior author of the study and director of the Andrology Laboratory at the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, told Reuters Health,
“Lubricants available on the shelf at Target, Walmart are not lubricants any couple should use if they are trying to have a baby,”
“Couples can try them for their sexual pleasure,”
“But if they are trying to have a baby, then they are not going to work for them.”
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