Does Stress Influence Male Fertility?

"Just relax and you'll get pregnant..."

You've probably heard this very "insightful" advice before. Women hear it constantly, and men encounter some version of it too. A study set out to actually test whether stress affects sperm quality.

The study

Researchers recruited 423 men — both fertile men and men diagnosed with male-factor infertility. Participants self-reported their stress levels via questionnaires, and researchers collected semen and blood samples to measure:

• Hormone levels, including testosterone, LH, and FSH
• Sperm count, morphology (size and shape), and motility (movement)

As expected, infertile men tended to have lower sperm quality and more hormone irregularities than fertile men. But stress itself didn't explain the difference: higher self-reported stress wasn't linked to worse testicular function, hormone levels, or even erectile dysfunction — in either the fertile or infertile group.

What this does (and doesn't) mean

This study is specifically about the direct biological link between stress and sperm quality, and on that narrow question, the answer was a clear no. It doesn't rule out every way stress could indirectly matter — chronic stress can still affect sleep, diet, and how often couples have sex at the right time, all of which can matter for conception. But the idea that stress itself is quietly sabotaging sperm production doesn't hold up here. So if you're a guy hearing "just relax" for the hundredth time, you now have a study to point to.

Reference

Bräuner et al. 2020. Fertility and Sterility, 113(4), 865–875.