Handsome men may have poor semen quality
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Contrary to what one might expect, researchers have found that facial
masculinity is negatively associated with semen quality.
So, if you want to make healthy and intelligent babies, do not blindly
scan through handsome faces to decide your partner.
"As increased levels of testosterone have been demonstrated to impair
sperm production, this finding may indicate a trade-off between
investments in secondary sexual signalling (facial masculinity) and
fertility," researchers said.
Using a new technique called Phenotype Linked Fertility Hypothesis
(PLFH), the study investigated whether potential ability to select
fertile partners is independent of factors such as sex and cultural
background.
During the study, 62 Caucasian male students from the University of
Valencia, Spain, were recruited.
All the males were asked to abstain from sex and masturbation for
three to five days prior to the semen collection.
Semen analysis for 50 males was performed after liquefaction of
ejaculated semen.
Sperm motility and concentration were measured according to the World
Health Organisation criteria (WHO).
Each male subject was photographed for frontal and right-profile
facial photographs.
All the colour photographs were scanned and a black oval mask was
placed over the images to minimise the visual effect of hairstyle.
"Interestingly, males estimated the facial images to be more
attractive than females, suggesting that males generally overestimate
the attractiveness of other men to females," researchers noted.
This suggests that male facial cues may provide culture and
sex-independent information about male fertility.
"Our results also indicate that humans may be more sensitive to facial
attractiveness cues within their own populations," the authors
concluded.
The study appeared recently in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
Credit: IANS