Fertility has always been treated as a one-person conversation, but it takes two to get pregnant.
If you start researching male fertility, one thing comes up again and again: heat. There’s a good reason for that. It’s one of the biggest factors at play, and it's also one of the easiest to fix with a few lifestyle changes.
Photo credit: Mikhail Nilov
The Heat Piece
The testicles sit outside the body for a reason—they function best a few degrees cooler than your core body temperature. Everyday habits like long laptop sessions on your lap, cycling regularly, tight underwear, or spending long stretches in a hot tub can raise the temperature just enough to lower sperm production. One hot tub soak won’t do much on its own, but it adds up when it becomes a habit rather than a once-in-a-while thing.
A 2022 study in the journal Andrology found that even modest, repeated heat exposure was linked to lower sperm concentration.
Here’s the reassuring part: this kind of dip in sperm production tends to bounce back. Sperm has its own full cycle—about three months—so any drop in sperm count caused by heat usually corrects itself once the habit changes. It’s more like a thermostat that needs resetting than a permanent mark against anything.
Photo credit: Budgeron Bach
The Habits That Matter
Beyond the heat, sperm health comes down to the same fundamentals—eat well, move your body regularly, cut back on alcohol and smoking, and find some way to release stress instead of letting it build up with nowhere to go.
This Is a Shared Season
A woman’s egg health tends to get all the attention, but sperm is just as responsive to lifestyle changes. If your partner is willing, this is a good thing to work on together. You can start in small ways like cooking meals at home, taking long walks, and prioritizing rest.
A semen analysis is also a simple, low-pressure way to get a baseline reading of sperm count and quality. Most fertility clinics offer it, and some now offer at-home kits too.
So if he can skip resting the laptop directly on his lap, switch to looser-fitting underwear, and not stress too much if a few habits need to change, sperm production catches back up faster than people expect.
