Twenty-nine year old Bethany tells me her ex used to eat his own cum. “He ate it and licked it up primarily out of laziness after wanking,” she says, describing his activities to me via DM. “I don’t think he believed there were truly life-changing benefits to eating cum, but went along with the belief that it was good for the immune system and full of vitamins.”
The suggestion that cum is some kind of superfood packed with more protein than a Huel subscription box has flitted around the internet for years. Several high profile celebrities and beauty bloggers have claimed it reduces wrinkles and gives a youthful glow, with most famous people getting theirs from a ‘penis facial’ (made using stem cells removed from the foreskins of newborn babies in South Korea), while less moneyed bloggers simply ask their mates to deposit their wares into a take-away carton.
While the nutritional value of sperm is not available to log on your My Fitness Pal diary, a 2013 study on the physical and chemical properties of human semen revealed that it does contain a number of nutrients the body requires, including Vitamin C, Zinc, Proteins and traces of B12. But the amount of cum ingested from a single blowie is far from enough to replace your multivitamins, journalist Sian Ferguson pointed out in Healthline. So unless you’re chugging the stuff like a series of after-work pints, the benefits of eating cum – or rubbing it into your skin – are minimal.
Perhaps minimal is the wrong word, though. It is, according to science, minimal if you’re attempting to swap out Berocca for bodily fluids. However, while the nutritional value of ejaculate is almost the same as if you didn’t swallow, there are people who reckon that consuming cum on the regular has benefits – not for their physical health, but their mental health.
“While I didn’t eat semen for ‘health’ reasons. I did use it as a kind of supplement for my anti depressants,” Sophia, 33, tells me. “I read in one of my homeopathy books that women who routinely consume semen have a less depressed outlook.”
Sophia says she did find herself feeling better by upping her spunk consumption. “I’m hyper sexual and depend on physical affection to feel bonded,” she clarifies. “So I’m not sure if it was the increased sexual activity and the resulting boost in bonding hormones, or the hormones in the semen that helped.”
Meg, 33, reports a similar experience, telling me that swallowing spaff has helped her mood alongside medication. “Knowing that I can obtain additional serotonin and oxytocin while making my partners’ day is, in itself, it’s own mood-booster,” she explains. “The combination of physical benefits and the probable psychological benefits is a no-brainer for me. I’m good at blowjobs and I enjoy swallowing, so it’s mutually beneficial.”
Whether it’s the increase in sexual activity that’s helping these women or the sperm itself, both Sophia and Meg’s experiences of elevated moods after upping their cum consumption does back up a small scientific study from 2002, which found that semen contains antidepressant qualities. However, the research was conducted on a focus group of less than 300 women and was only based on vaginal absorption and did not include oral consumption.
Dr. Steven M. Platek, psychology professor at Georgia Gwinnett College and writer on this study spoke to me via email about his findings in 2002 and how they may apply to necking shots of cum back with dreams of an anxiety-less life. “Although our research has demonstrated that semen has positive mood altering effects on women, we have made it abundantly clear that we are not promoting unprotected sex as a treatment for depression,” he explains. Platek also takes care to point out that the digestive enzymes in our stomach will probably destroy all the benefits that swallowing a load might have, just to confirm that semen is not a replacement for any prescribed SSRIs.
The scientific version of this sentence, in case you wish to quote it when a man describes spitting as a waste, is as follows: oral ingestion might be the least effective method of consumption because the semen would be met with various digestive enzymes – everything from amylase secreted by the salivary glands to hydrochloric acid produced in the stomach – along the way.
“At this time, I do not know of any data investigating the way in which these digestive enzymes affect the absorptive properties of semen,” Platek says. He does mention, however, that facials and anal cream pies might work out better for mental health help. “There is a strong possibility that the chemicals in sperm could also be absorbed, albeit at a greatly reduced rate through the skin (cutaneous absorption), anally (through anal sex).”
If you are determined to get the man gunk down your gullet for positive effects, Platek also hypothesised that popping the sperm in a digestive tablet – more specifically any “cellulose pills that are resistant to salivary and stomach enzymes, or that are ‘timed release’” that you have lying around your boudoir. This form of sperm swallowing would combat the enzymes and “would help the beneficial chemicals arrive in the duodenum and lower gastrointestinal tract and likely have similar mood altering effects as semen administered anally.”
So, generally speaking, the answer to the age old question of whether swallowing cum is good for you is: yes! And so is imbibing it anally, vaginally or facially because cum is – what! – a product of orgasm, which usually indicates a good time for at least one party. Even if the sticky, salty load isn’t firing off endorphins or the equivalent of a Goop facial, you can still accept that however you take said load is good for you because enjoying yourself is good for you.