sodium, and zinc. As for how zinc tastes, there’s a fairly well-known taste test that’s used to determine if people have low levels of zinc. You are given a solution of zinc to drink, and if you can’t taste anything, it’s because your body has a zinc deficiency. However, if you’ve got an acceptable level of zinc, the zinc solution tastes “strong and unpleasant.” This might indicate that semen would taste better to people who have a zinc deficiency, although it’s probably not wise to phone your healthcare provider and say, “My boyfriend’s cum tastes really yummy to me. Does this mean I’m zinc-deficient?” Let’s just say there’s a fair amount of zinc in spunk, and zinc doesn’t taste very good unless you have a zinc deficiency or the semen is low in zinc. Ditto for magnesium, and we all know what sodium tastes like.
On the good side, semen does contain fructose and glucose. However, in their “Review of the Physical and Chemical Properties of Human Semen,” Owen and Katz discovered that the amount of fructose and glucose can vary as much as four-fold from man to man.
Semen is home to low concentrations of other polyamines by the names of putrescine and cadaverine. These compounds are essential for cells to live. They also like to announce themselves when cells die. Both putrescine and cadaverine are well-named and are responsible for the rotting flesh smell that things produce soon after they die. This familiar smell is an important indicator of spoilage in food.
Most cheeses that are really smelly and sharp-tasting are high in putrescine, but so is fermented soy sauce, shrimp, and certain citrus fruits. Putrescine and cadaverine are what bring us the fishy smell when women have bacterial infections in their vaginas. One reason why semen doesn’t ordinarily smell fishy is because it has a very low concentration of cellular matter, so there are fewer dying cells to produce a fishy odor.
When Semen Smells Bad Rather than Just Bleachy
After being with a couple of men, most women have a baseline sense of what semen normally smells like. However, semen occasionally has an extra pungent odor that our andrology-urology consultant says can be the result of a hidden prostate infection. He’s referring to a combined bleach-like and fishy odor. The fishy part comes from the polyamines that are released from decaying white blood cells that end up in the semen as a result of the infection in the prostate.
Semen normally has some white blood cells in it, but at a very low level. When a man has a prostate infection, the white blood cell count in his semen increases, which results in more polyamines like putrescine being liberated:
“Since I do a lot of semen analysis in my office, I can tell the semen that has lots of white blood cells when we open the container. It has a really strong, bad odor—to the point that my research assistant is able to suspect that men have infection just from the odor of semen when we are preparing slides to be examined.”
Men who have prostatitis might notice yellowish, jellylike globs in their semen. Suspicions also rise when semen has a honey-like sweet smell. This can be the result of a staph infection. Healthy man-jam tends to be mostly white and has the smell of clean, fresh bleach.
Out, Damn Spot
Ever notice that some boys’ semen stains are worse than others? Semen contains a lot of protein, much of which is albumin. This is the same kind of protein that is in egg whites, although we don’t recommend baking with it.
As protein dries it changes optical qualities and color. The yellowish staining ability of semen is related to the concentration of protein in it. The concentration of sperm can also have an impact. The higher the sperm count, the more opaque or yellowish semen will be. These factors determine why one guy’s semen may have a greater tendency to leave yellowish stains in underwear and sheets than another guy’s semen.
How Thick is
On the good side, semen does contain fructose and glucose. However, in their “Review of the Physical and Chemical Properties of Human Semen,” Owen and Katz discovered that the amount of fructose and glucose can vary as much as four-fold from man to man.
Semen is home to low concentrations of other polyamines by the names of putrescine and cadaverine. These compounds are essential for cells to live. They also like to announce themselves when cells die. Both putrescine and cadaverine are well-named and are responsible for the rotting flesh smell that things produce soon after they die. This familiar smell is an important indicator of spoilage in food.
Most cheeses that are really smelly and sharp-tasting are high in putrescine, but so is fermented soy sauce, shrimp, and certain citrus fruits. Putrescine and cadaverine are what bring us the fishy smell when women have bacterial infections in their vaginas. One reason why semen doesn’t ordinarily smell fishy is because it has a very low concentration of cellular matter, so there are fewer dying cells to produce a fishy odor.
When Semen Smells Bad Rather than Just Bleachy
After being with a couple of men, most women have a baseline sense of what semen normally smells like. However, semen occasionally has an extra pungent odor that our andrology-urology consultant says can be the result of a hidden prostate infection. He’s referring to a combined bleach-like and fishy odor. The fishy part comes from the polyamines that are released from decaying white blood cells that end up in the semen as a result of the infection in the prostate.
Semen normally has some white blood cells in it, but at a very low level. When a man has a prostate infection, the white blood cell count in his semen increases, which results in more polyamines like putrescine being liberated:
“Since I do a lot of semen analysis in my office, I can tell the semen that has lots of white blood cells when we open the container. It has a really strong, bad odor—to the point that my research assistant is able to suspect that men have infection just from the odor of semen when we are preparing slides to be examined.”
Men who have prostatitis might notice yellowish, jellylike globs in their semen. Suspicions also rise when semen has a honey-like sweet smell. This can be the result of a staph infection. Healthy man-jam tends to be mostly white and has the smell of clean, fresh bleach.
Out, Damn Spot
Ever notice that some boys’ semen stains are worse than others? Semen contains a lot of protein, much of which is albumin. This is the same kind of protein that is in egg whites, although we don’t recommend baking with it.
As protein dries it changes optical qualities and color. The yellowish staining ability of semen is related to the concentration of protein in it. The concentration of sperm can also have an impact. The higher the sperm count, the more opaque or yellowish semen will be. These factors determine why one guy’s semen may have a greater tendency to leave yellowish stains in underwear and sheets than another guy’s semen.
How Thick is
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