How to raise sperm count and sway BLUE
Easy strategies for improving the Y swimmers
Updated 2-23-25
Research indicates that one of the best things you can do to conceive a son is to improve sperm count and quality. Here are some ways to do that. If you are looking for a more extensive analysis of improving sperm quality for Natural Gender Selection, please read the Family Jewels FAQ on my blog, atomic sagebrush’s Complete Gender Swaying Library.
Be at a healthy weight - Having too much or too little body fat can disrupt production of the male reproductive hormones GnRh, LH, FSH, and testosterone (yes, these are present in women’s bodies too, just in differing amounts!) We have seen more girls conceived to men who were a little overweight. While women probably shouldn’t lose weight before a blue sway, men who need to drop a few pounds will only help the cause!
Get regular, sane amounts of exercise - Moderate levels of exercise are great for boosting testosterone and increasing sperm count. However, care must be taken to avoid overheating the testicles while exercising. Jogging and biking have been shown to sway pink in men, so you may want to avoid those forms of exercise.
Avoid excessive stress if you can - Stress in small doses - particularly self-induced stress that one gets from achieving goals and finishing projects - is actually good for boosting testosterone levels and therefore sperm count. But day-in, day-out high levels of stress from events outside your locus of control has the opposite effect and can reduce the number of sperm produced.
Avoid pesticides and harmful chemicals - Pesticides and industrial chemicals, particularly solvents, have been linked with lower sperm counts. Men in fields where they had to work around lots of chemicals - including industrial solvents, strong disinfectants, anesthetic, and insecticides - have been shown in studies to father more girls.
Eat a balanced, healthy diet - Eat enough protein and healthy fats (Omega 3 fats are best), but don't overdo it - no need to stuff yourself with food you don’t want or gain weight. Foods rich in folate, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and zinc will help to boost sperm production and quality. Traditional fertility foods include nuts and seeds, wheatgrass juice (not supplements, we've seen a lot of opposites with wheatgrass supplements), avocado, eggs, spinach, and berries. Try to find organic products when possible to reduce your exposure to pesticides. Oysters are traditionally touted as a fertility food, but all shellfish is exposed to too much agricultural runoff to be safe and should be avoided.
Foods high in potassium are believed to sway blue (though very little real data backs this up), so feel free to enjoy bananas, potatoes and tomatoes. Even though potassium is very, very unlikely to be any sort of magic blue bullet, potassium rich foods are good for overall health anyway and are much better for your fertility than processed foods.
Avoid soy - Soy has been linked to decreased sperm count in both humans and animals. It’s best for husbands to avoid soy when swaying blue, and wives, use it sparingly, 2-3 times a week tops. Please be on the lookout for things like protein bars and workout shakes which often have massive amounts of soy protein in them.
Keep your testicles cool - Heat negatively affects sperm count - spending 30 minutes in water that's 102 degrees has been proven to dramatically lower sperm count. Avoid tight-fitting underwear, hot baths (and maybe even hot showers!) don't rest your laptop in your lap for long periods of time, and be very careful when you exercise. Bicyclists, marathon runners, and rugby players all have more daughters, probably in part because the heat generated by their exercising is killing off some of their sperm. You may want to sleep in the nude. If, while you're trying to conceive, hubby should develop a fever, DO NOT conceive that month if you're trying for a boy.
Stay away from steroids, testosterone-based supplements, and anti-androgen drugs - It sounds counterintuitive, but even drugs that are supposed to raise testosterone can interfere with sperm production. It is likely not the testosterone alone, but the effect on sperm quality, and steroids are bad for sperm quality. The most commonly used anti-androgen drugs are those prescribed to treat prostate issues and baldness.
Avoid tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol - Regular use of tobacco (including chewing tobacco), marijuana, and large amounts of alcohol are all strongly linked with low sperm counts, lower testosterone levels, and may damage the DNA of sperm rendering it incapable of fertilizing the egg.
Sane amounts of caffeine - In small amounts, caffeine perks up sperm and actually helps it swim faster. Using this logic, an energy drink an hour before intercourse may help conceive blue. But caffeine before sex has never been proven to sway at all, and it does interfere with sleep. Additionally, LARGE amounts of caffeine, day in and day out, will lower testosterone and sperm count. We have seen a lot of daughters conceived to men who drink energy drinks to excess.
For an in depth article regarding “The Vices of Swaying” - smoking, drinking, coffee, and beyond - please visit my blog: The Vices of Swaying - atomic sagebrush
Supplements - zinc (no more than 30 mg a day in the very short term, and 20-25 is safest in the long term), L-Arginine (200-500 mg), carnitine (500 mg), CoQ10 (100 mg daily), selenium (no more than 200 mcg), and a good multivitamin. I like Men's One a Day 50+ Advanced (has a very small amount of calcium), even though some husbands get annoyed because "I'm not over 50!!" - the proportions of nutrients are just very effective for swaying. Make sure you don't double-up on zinc and selenium because your multivitamin may already have it in there. You do not need to give him every supplement on the market - I have seen several men who were taking so many vitamin supplements they made themselves ill, and they ended up conceiving girls while doing that. Too much is worse than not enough.
Ingest or take healthy fats and fat soluble vitamins - Everyone swaying blue, men and women alike, should take 1000 IU Vit. D. Vitamin D helps raise testosterone and estrogen levels naturally without the risks of artificial medications or herbal supplements, and is great for blue sways. Also, taking fish oil, DHA, and using olive oil and butter for cooking instead of margarine, shortening, or other "Frankenfoods" vegetable oils such as soy and canola, will help provide good fats for your body to use.
Intercourse in certain patterns can help boost sperm count at ovulation - Traditional swaying info says to have sex once at or right before ovulation for a boy. During my many years at the old Gender Dreaming website, I discovered 70-75% of pink swayers got GIRLS with one attempt! Please have at least 2-3 attempts at or around positive OPK. By having intercourse the night of positive OPK (O-1), the next morning (O Day) and again the following night (O Day night) you can have 3 attempts while still sticking to Shettles timing if that is important to you.
I have a full Shettles How-To in the paid section of this Substack, including how to combine Shettles timing with a blue sway, a complete guide to tracking your cycle, and a lot of other good stuff that will help you to include timing in your sway if you wish to.
Rise and shine! - The old school sway gurus advised having intercourse in the morning for blue sways, because that's when sperm count is at its highest. It is probably not necessary, but when you go for the 3 attempts at or around positive OPK, you will end up with one attempt in the morning that way.
Regular frequency is best - You should NOT abstain longer than 4-5 days OR have sex every day (also called “daily BD to ovulation”) because both of these things lower sperm count. For highest sperm count, having husband release every 2-4 days seemed to keep sperm at highest numbers.
But don’t overdo it! -In the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility, it is advised that men with low sperm count should have intercourse every other day in the fertile window, beginning when eggwhite CM appears. Other swaying sites even recommend daily intercourse for blue. Some of us - particularly when swaying blue - can get EWCM for 7-10 days in advance of ovulation, and having sex too much, starting too far in advance, cuts odds of conception and may sway pink for some couples. Many men even find themselves unable to perform with too much sex. Just have him release every 2-4 days outside of the fertile window. For your attempt, wait till your positive OPK or peak CM day (if not using OPK) and have sex then. The OPK method is best; waiting for peak CM relies on your ability to be able to predict in advance what your peak day of cervical mucus is - which we cannot do with any reliability especially when swaying.
What to do after intercourse? - Evidence indicates that high sperm count at every stage - pre-ejaculation, ejaculation, sperm survival in your reproductive tract, and around the egg - seems to make it more likely that you will conceive a boy. And semen, being very alkaline, helps sperm to survive in harsh conditions. For swaying blue, we need to keep as much of the sperm/semen in the vagina as we can until the sperm have had adequate time to swim from the semen to the cervical crypts.
Limit movement after intercourse - Standing up after intercourse can cause semen to leak out, and the semen will carry sperm along with it. Wait 30 minutes after sex (or just go to sleep for the night) before getting up and moving around. You don't need to lay down any longer than 30 minutes, because the sperm have left the vagina and are in the safety of the cervix by that point.
Try to keep semen inside longer - Some advise holding the labia together to try to keep the semen and sperm inside of you (to me, it seems that the changing of positions you would need to do to accomplish this would probably expel more than you would save!) You can also try putting a pillow under your pelvis to help tilt your body so the sperm can travel upwards more easily, or try bringing your knees to your chest (again, you may end up pushing out more semen that way.) We have also found that laying on your belly at least part of this 30 minute window may also help boost odds of conception particularly for those who have a tilted/tipped uterus.
Avoid the Cups! - Some people have suggested using an Instead Cup, Moon Cup, Diva Cup, or a diaphragm after sex to hold the semen at the cervix longer. I don't advise it, because the maneuvers you have to go through to get the cup into place cause you to lose a lot of semen, and it also stands to reason that you're effectively sealing OUT more sperm than you're keeping in - putting a barrier in front of your cervix so any troops that don't make it into the boat in time are left behind. Having hubby ejaculate into the cup (as some swaying sites recommend) may even be worse, because it's hard to get the cup into place without spilling the contents everywhere and also ejaculation manually vs. intercourse produces fewer sperm to begin with. I believe it's far better to just stay laying flat for 30 min, hips propped if you'd like.
Female Orgasm - Female orgasm raises pH, produces more alkaline fluids for sperm to swim through, and may make hubby release more sperm than he would otherwise.
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