Can Lubricants Affect Fertility?
Well… When it comes to olive oil, all I can say is: great to cook with, not great as a lube when you’re trying to conceive!
Unlike some other oils which are OK (canola oil and mustard oil, for example), olive oil negatively affects sperm motility (which means, how well the sperm can swim). And that’s something you definitely don’t want when you’re trying to get pregnant!
Studies show that even at low concentrations, olive oil has a negative effect on sperm parameters. So if you want to use a lubricant, you should pick one that interferes the least with sperm motility. Fertility friendly lubes (it will say so on the package) don’t affect sperm and neither do canola oil, mustard oil, and baby oil.
So I repeat: just leave your olive oil in the kitchen!
Side note; am I the only one who had never heard of mustard oil before?
References:
Anderson, L., S. E. Lewis, and N. McClure. 1998. Human Reproduction 13 (12): 3351–56.
Kutteh, W. H., C. H. Chao, J. O. Ritter, and W. Byrd. 1996. International Journal of Fertility and Menopausal Studies 41 (4): 400–404.
Sandhu, Ranjit S., Timothy H. Wong, Crystal A. Kling, and Kazim R. Chohan. 2014. Fertility and Sterility 101 (4): 941–44.
