Swallowing your partner's semen on a regular basis decreases chances of miscarriage, say researchers
A shocking new reasearch claims that women who swallow their partners semen while engaging in oral sex are less susceptible to recurrent miscarriages.
The researchers from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands believe that swallowing the semen strengthens a pregnant woman's immune system in a way that helps the developing fetus grow to be a healthy baby.
They said that this could be because semen contains hormones and proteins from a man's body which could be useful for the mother in order to build tolerance.
Vaginal exposure to semen, or having unprotected sex, is definitely something that plays an important role if a couple is trying to conceive, but semen is reportedly better absorbed in the gut.
The Daily Mail reported that researchers from the medical center tested their theory by comparing the pregnancy history and the oral sex habits of 234 women.
The researchers then acknowledged that their result is strong enough to suggest that there is a link between the two and warrants more study.
About 97 of the women had suffered from recurrent miscarriages, which is a condition in which a woman has three or more miscarriages in a row. The condition is believed to affect around one in 100 women in the UK and is thought to be triggered by genetic or hormonal problems, or infection. Many of the cases are still unexplained.
In the study, the scientists found that the women who have regular miscarriages were giving their male partners significantly less oral sex. While around 73% of the women from the non-miscarriage group regularly gave oral sex, only about 57% of the women in the miscarriage group did.
The researchers wrote: "Oral exposure to seminal fluid seems to... influence pregnancy outcome in a positive way. Our results suggest an association between less oral sex and the occurrence of recurrent miscarriage."
By strengthening the mother's tolerance through substances from her male partner's body, the parents are believed to be able to give a fetus, who is made up of half of the father's DNA, a better chance of thriving in life.
The theory explains that this could make the mother's immune system less likely to reject the fetus which will lead to its death.
The scientists suggested that previous research may have been too focused on the mother's own biology instead of the impact that the father's bodily fluids may have.
The study was published in the Journal of Reproductive Immunology.