JELLY BEANS | Be warned: K-Y kills sperm

Hindustan Times

Anjali Doshi
Doshi, October 21, 2005

If you use lubricants for sex — or steroids to build big muscles — you may want to read this. Two new studies indicate that men who use jellies (and other slimy stuff) for easier passage, and steroids to bulk up, may be compromising their ability to produce sperm and jeopardising their chance at fatherhood.

The study on the risk of lubricants, conducted by Dr Ashok Agarwal at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, found that men who have strong, healthy sperm could immobilise them by using lubricants like the widely used K-Y Jelly (or Astroglide and FemGlide, available abroad). Agarwal and his colleagues replicated a typical single use of a lubricant on 13 men and found that some lubricants spared only 2 per cent of their sperm. Agarwal also found that K-Y damaged sperm DNA.

According to sexologist Prakash Kothari, K-Y (manufactured in India by Johnson and Johnson) and coconut oil, are the commonly used lubricants. “Oil is more harmful for movement of sperm than water-based jellies like K-Y,” Kothari says.

A second study, conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut and Yale University, has confirmed what doctors have long suspected: men who use steroids are at severe risk of ending up with low sperm counts.