Does menthol kill spermatozoa?

[Guest bgjyd834]

Does menthol kill spermatozoa or is it neutral... or maybe even helps it somehow?? (I don't know - I don't have a microscope, and Internet says nothing about it specifically so I ask)

 

Now - someone would say "Well - you know - it depends on concentration!" - so - here - for example: say you have a menthol tablet for sore throat say 160mg in weight, containing 2mg of menthol, 0.1mg of sodium usnat and sorbitol artificial sweetener - would it kill spermatozoa?

[John Cuthber]

"say you have a menthol tablet for sore throat say 160mg in weight, containing 2mg of menthol, 0.1mg of sodium usnat and sorbitol artificial sweetener - would it kill spermatozoa? "

That would rather depend on what you were doing.

If you were using it to treat a sore throat then, in the only circumstances where it would have an opportunity to act as a spermicide, it wouldn't matter if it did or not.

It certainly wouldn't be prudent to assume that it is spermicidal since the "cost" of getting it wrong is rather high.

 

In respect of the other obvious possibility, I will just say "other lubricants are available"

Edited April 11, 2011 by John Cuthber

[Atom612]

My bio-181 teacher was a fertility specialist working at fertility clinic and some of his colleagues' research found that saliva itself was quite a potent spermicide and as such couples trying to conceive should avoid using it as a lubricant. So while I'm not positive on the effect menthol has on spermatozoa, when combined with saliva - as would be the case with a throat lozenge - couldn't be beneficial for any spermatozoa it came in contact with.