I understand you can have damaged or defective sperm from all sorts of medical problems, but I’m curious if the actual opposite happens. If some people actually have sperm that’s stronger/more virile than normal.
Because we all heard the story of somebody who somehow anytime they have sex always get a person pregnant first time everytime. Is that just normal sperm, or can somebody just be that virile that it always happens?
“Strong” seems an odd word in this context. “Healthy”, if I recall correctly, manifests on a few concurrent primary levels: Spermatozoa should exhibit chemical signals that ova perceive as appropriate; I think damaged chromosomes can be sensed and thwarted but that could be a garbled memory. The medium in which they move can vary in how mucous or thin it is, and in pH, which is not just a characteristic of the female vaginal and uterine environment but is also affected by the seminal compounds (which tend towards the alkaline) — and for the longevity and motility of the sperm, these factors can be conducive or hostile. Then there’s the active-verb propelling flagellum motions, how efficiently the sperm can move itself all other things being equal.
There has to be an egg present in order for fertilization to occur. Healthy sperm can hang around for up to five days waiting for one to appear. So that’s a 5 in 28 chance right there.
One could also posit that some men are more sensitive to the signs that a woman is fertile. It could be a subconscious attraction to flushing, or other less obvious signals.
But overall, I think men who do NOT fall into this category are probably just more responsible in their sexual practices.
So in theory you could just have VERY efficiently moving sperm?
My husband got back from Iraq in late December 2006, and I was pregnant by the second week of January, 2007 (and no, I wasn’t already pregnant when he got back, because I had my period then).
I said something to the OB on my third or fourth appointment that we kind of figured if we started trying now, I’d be pregnant around May, just going by what happened to our friends, and she said something I don’t remember verbatim about some couples being exceptionally compatible, and said the same thing could happen again if we tried for a second child-- or if we had a birth control failure.
But, since we just had one pregnancy to judge by, it could be a statistical blip.
I know that vaginas have a pH that is generally slightly acidic, but in some women, it can run a little high, and that can be “hostile” to sperm-- but some sperm can withstand it, and some can’t, while some have difficulty in just the regular environment. Semen is neutral or slightly basic.
So, in those cases, yes, you might have “stronger” semen– not the sperm itself.
I really know what my OB meant by “compatible,” but it could have meant that I had a somewhat low pH, and he had a somewhat high, so we were a lucky match. That’s just a guess, though.
Maybe one of the doctors on the board has a better guess.
Scientific Study Showing that not All Sperm are Created Equal
Not All Sperm Are Equal: Functional Mitochondria Characterize a Subpopulation of Human Sperm with Better Fertilization Potential
When I was married, my wife had numerous issues with fertility. As part of the process, I had a complete work up. When I was told the results of my semen analysis, all was normal. Embarrassingly, I thanked the doctor when she remarked on my sperm’s excellent motility.
But yes, the percentage of spermatozoa demonstrating forward motility is a factor.
Yes, there are differences. It’s all laid out in this documentary:
Nope. I’ve never heard that one.
I’ve heard of people getting pregnant the first time, sure. But not of any specific person, whether male or female, who always gets a pregnancy the first time. And it’s impossible for males unless they’re carefully selecting only fertile women who are at the fertile stage of their cycles. No matter how vigorous the sperm, there has to be an egg there, either when the sperm get there or fairly shortly thereafter.
Nope. You still have to have an egg.
There are two people involved. Yes, some people have more vigorous sperm than others. But nobody’s going to be guaranteed to always get somebody pregnant on the first try.
Just to clarify – some people do have a light period in the first month or two of pregnancy. (I suspect you have additional reason to think you weren’t already pregnant when he got back.)
Me neither.
Both times I’ve gotten pregnant it was the first time after going off birth control, with the pregnancies spaced about five years apart almost to the day. But I was using fertility monitoring techniques, so are me and my husband really compatible or do those techniques just work really well?
I got pregnant with Wee Weasel so fast, my husband didn’t even believe me at first. And that was after a week or so of me cluelessly wondering why my stomach hurt so bad. It’s ironic that we had to wait so damned long to have a kid (fourteen years into our marriage) when we are apparently extremely fertile. That’s just the way it had to be.
Me neither, but I have heard it said that some girls can get pregnant just by looking at them. 
For what the anecdote is worth, my wife (true story) calls me “Bullseye.”
It’s also dependent on a woman’s immune system. Scientists have discovered what they term a “ secret handshake” between sperm and cells lining the uterus that prevents the female immune system from going on as sperm killing rampage.
One girl I dated was paranoid because a younger cousin (16yo) had become pregnant although “she only did it once”. I laughed and told her it was possible, but more likely they were going at it like bunnies and when the inevitable happened, she told her parents it was a one-timer.
“Decidual bleeding” can happen for 1 to 9 months after conception and appear to be periods, sometimes lighter. I know of two cases at least where pregnancy was obvious only when they reached about 5 months and it was visible. There have been several news stories over the years about “surprise birth” where the woman said she had periods right up until she went into labour.
I knew one couple who had given up on having children, and had a surprise pregnancy after 14 years.
The reasons why pregnancy happens to fail to begin when sperm and egg are there together are many and varied, so it’s hard to pinpoint specific attributes, especially on the male’s side of the equation which is harder to monitor. I don’t think I’ve heard that when they work with in vitro processes, they find a regular failure to fertilize - so I presume the major issue is implantation failure? I suspect that is lesslikely an issue of the male’s contribution.
I do hope you didn’t tell her that because you were hoping to persuade her to have sex without sufficient protection; or to have sex at all if she didn’t want to. Anybody who really needs to not get pregnant is wise to be a bit “paranoid”.
One of the purposes of in vitro is to try to get around problems with the male’s contribution. Sperm can be placed right next to the egg, instead of having to swim their way to it; which significantly increases the chances of conception if the problem is low sperm count or low sperm motility.
According to my fertility doctor, you’re more likely to get pregnant the first month after going off birth control. (This was 30 years ago.)
When I was married I was living in New York for a monthlong period. I returned home for xmas, had sex once, then returned to NY.
That one time led to my daughter. We actually knew her date of conception, so the OB/GYN was able to give an accurate due date. My daughter was born on her due date and remains punctual 33 years later.
My wife was advised not to get pregnant the month right after ending a cycle of pills but she did get pregnant quickly the month after that when we went started to have sex without any birth control. She showed up pregnant on the tests in the minimum time.
Maybe it increases the odds of miscarriage? One of my two pregnancies did indeed end that way.
ETA: Apparently that’s a myth. Err for what Web MD is worth.