Updated 4/13/2022
Most men would be happy with a bigger dick, but their obsession with size doesn’t end there. According to a recent study, men who are unsatisfied with the volume of their cum experience high levels of relationship distress, fear of failure, sexual dissatisfaction and anxiety regarding their sexual performance. Thanks a bunch, unfettered access to limitless pornography. Now guys want bigger loads, too. Is it possible to, well, cum more?
Alas, the ordinary load is anything but big: The average volume of ejaculate is between 3 and 5 milliliters (or about a teaspoon), according to a World Health Organization study. Furthermore, the amount of semen a person ejaculates decreases as they age, with peak production occurring between the ages 30 and 35.
So for those who really worry about this stuff: First of all, is it “come” or “cum”? Should you worry about your precum, too? Will a cock ring help you cum more? What about prostate cum? And more importantly, what can be done to, uh, “pump up the volume”?
Funnily enough, the people who study male reproductive health aren’t incredibly interested in the actual size of your load (being scientists, not bukkake auteurs). But they are interested in the overall health of your load, and according to urologist and infertility specialist Jamin Brahmbhatt — and stop us if you’ve heard this one before — living a healthy lifestyle is the best way to keep things running smoothly in your pants.
How to Cum More: The Expert Advice
- Lose Weight: “Thirty-three percent of obese men have a low sperm count, and seven percent have no sperm count,” Brahmbhatt says. “As you lose weight, your count will naturally improve.”
- Eat Antioxidants: “Increase your consumption of greens, fruits and veggies,” Brahmbhatt suggests. “Healthier foods full of antioxidants help improve your sperm count and quality.”
- Exercise (But Don’t Overdo It): “Mild to moderate activity is okay, but severe, high-intensity training may hurt your sperm quality,” Brahmbhatt explains. “Generally speaking, what most people do at the gym shouldn’t hurt your sperm count.”
Brahmbhatt also suggests avoiding tobacco and excessive alcohol consumption (which both reduce sperm quality and quantity), as well as lengthy soaks in the hot tub, since prolonged heat exposure damages the sperm.
Still, while doing all of this might help you produce somewhat larger loads, at the end of the day, there’s only one surefire way to significantly improve semen volume: allowing your body enough time to recover between orgasms. That’s because repeated ejaculation over a short period of time results, naturally, in lower semen volume (as anyone who’s reached the end of a day alone to find they’re down to a puff of dust and a shrill, piercing whistle will know).
• Read next: Rate My Cock: Why Guys Are Paying Women for Honest Dick Ratings
“The body can only recover so quickly — it wasn’t designed to have sex like a rabbit,” explains Jason Barritt, chief scientific officer and laboratory director at the Southern California Reproductive Center. “When we see gentlemen who are experiencing variation, we put them on a regimen: Every two to three days, ejaculate. Once you do that for a period of time, your body becomes used to the pattern — it knows you just ejaculated, and that it needs to produce more semen. It’s like training for basketball — if you go out and practice a lot, you’ll get very good at it. But you don’t want to practice for 20 hours in one day; you want to practice for one hour each day — you’ll be just as good, but not as tired.”
In other words, allowing yourself a one-or-two-day break between ejaculations can help maximize semen volume. That doesn’t mean you need to stop masturbating entirely, though. So long as you edge — i.e., jerk off without cumming — you won’t be spilling any of your precious cargo.
This might all sound like a lot of work (or not a lot of ejaculating), but still, you shouldn’t be tempted to try online semen supplements, as there’s no clinical research to suggest that products promising to increase semen volume actually work. Not lecithin, not maca, not zinc — although limited research has show they may affect testosterone levels and sperm count and motility (which won’t help much, as sperm only accounts for between one and 10 percent of total semen volume).
“There’s nothing currently on the market (that isn’t prescribed) that can increase semen volume,” Barritt explains. “There are a lot of folk remedies and supplements out there that people think increases semen volume, but oftentimes, these are just a placebo.”
• Read next: Will Kegel Exercises for Men Help Your Orgasms?
There is one other option, though: As a last resort, if you’re not optimally producing (and you’re hoping to make babies), a fertility expert can prescribe steroids or stimulating hormones. “Sometimes men have hormone levels that are outside of the norm,” Barritt explains. “Therefore, a urologist or endocrinologist can potentially prescribe them medications that would allow them to return to mostly normal hormone levels.”
But if you’re simply seeking larger loads for your own gratification, your only option is to give your balls a break. And if that is you, let’s be honest, they’ve probably earned it.
Your Hardest Questions About Dicks, Answered
- What is an average flaccid penis? Here’s the truth about “grower vs. shower.”
- A historical look at Milton Berle’s supposedly giant penis.
- Is “summer penis” real?
- Read our guide to more intense orgasms for people with penises.
- Men fear saggy balls. But can they be prevented?
- Do you get your penis size from your mom or your dad?
- Can’t urinate? Here’s how to make yourself pee if you have a shy bladder.
- Inside Jackinworld, the internet’s first masturbation forum.
- Kegel influencers on Reddit won’t rest until you kegel-exercise your way to better sex.
- Yes, some guys still don’t wash their hands after they pee.
- To many people, penis girth matters more than penis size.
- What’s in delay spray for premature ejaculation?
- What does a Penuma implant look like? Penis surgery, explained.
- Can’t pee in public bathrooms? Here’s the best trick for shy bladders.
Your Most Loaded Questions About Cum, Answered
- What the hell is “Welcome to the Cum Zone“?
- Here’s what’s in your ejaculate.
- Just how long does sperm survive in the wild?
- How does stress hurt my sperm?
- Wait, there are carcinogens in sperm??
- What are cum shoes, exactly???
- In case you were wondering (you were), here’s how women want you to cum.
- But also, how much cum do you throw away in a lifetime?
- And why is it that some men can’t cum at all?
- Should you freeze your sperm if you want to have kids later?
- For real tho, why are we so obsessed with swallowing cum?
- No judgment — there are plenty of straight guys who sample their own spunk, too.
Ian Lecklitner
Ian Lecklitner is a staff writer at MEL Magazine. He mostly writes about everyone's favorite things: Sex, drugs and food.
