How to Increase Ejaculation & Semen Volume
When guys come to us with questions about how they stack up against other men, there’s frequently a common cause for their concern that we have to address. Society sets unrealistic expectations for our sex lives — penis size, sexual stamina, and even the amount of semen you ejaculate are rarely accurately portrayed by porn stars or discussed in the group chat.
But if you’re concerned that you’re producing less than you should, what can you do about it?
A healthcare provider will generally point to taking better care of your health to make a trickle-down impact on your semen volume. To increase your semen volume and improve your general and sexual health overall, experts will tell you to make sure you’re prioritizing important lifestyle and habits:
Get the recommended amount of sleep and exercise.
Reduce the amount of alcohol, tobacco and stress in your life.
Maintain a healthy weight, diet and mental state.
However, there’s a lot more to know about how habits affect your semen volume and even your sexual performance. Below, we’ve answered all of your ejaculation questions and explained in detail how to improve your performance and maintain stronger erections.
Don’t rush to the end here — there’s a volume of knowledge that can help you get where you want to be below.
What Is Seminal Fluid?
There are a lot of misconceptions about what’s in ejaculate, so let’s clear them up off the bad. Seminal fluid is a collection of ingredients, and seminal fluid and sperm aren’t the same thing.
Seminal fluid is a medium for your sperm. It provides your ejaculate with the majority of its volume and allows sperm to travel out from your urethra when you reach orgasm and ejaculate — so when you're thinking about how to increase “sperm volume” or googling phrases like “how to produce more cum,” what you're actually thinking about is seminal fluid.
These components of seminal fluid are all produced in the different parts of your reproductive system:
Your prostate gland produces prostatic fluid, which is a milky, alkaline substance that allows your sperm to remain capable of movement.
Your seminal vesicles also produce fluid, which accounts for around 50 to 80 percent of the semen you ejaculate. This fluid contains sugar, alkaline fluid and clotting factors, which allow your sperm to survive inside the vagina.
Your testes produce sperm, which are pushed out from your penis in seminal fluid when you ejaculate. Each drop of semen contains millions of sperm, although sperm make up only a tiny percentage of your ejaculate volume.
While you’re in the afterglow of an orgasm, your prostate gland, seminal vesicles and testes get back to work refilling the reserves, allowing you to ejaculate again the next time you have sex or masturbate.
Here’s an important fact, though: both higher-than-average and lower-than-average semen volumes have been associated with worse sperm quality. So if you’re worried about conception and how it relates to ejaculate levels, it might not be worth the worry.
Average Ejaculatory Volumes: Am I Normal?
As you’ve probably noticed yourself, you’re more likely to ejaculate a large volume of semen if you haven’t had sex or masturbated in a while. This is because your body needs time to create the seminal fluid that gives your ejaculate its volume. So what’s a normal volume?
According to the NIH, a “normal” level of ejaculation is typically considered anything above 1.5 mL, or milliliters, of total semen.
Keep in mind: semen is different from your total ejaculatory volume. According to the International Society for Sexual Medicine, the average volume of semen that’s ejaculated at orgasm in men ranges from 1.25 to 5 mL. That’s approximately one-quarter to one teaspoon or about one-sixth of a fluid ounce.
Please don’t try to measure this at home using any of the family kitchen tools. If you're concerned about your ejaculation levels, the best thing to do is schedule time with your healthcare provider. They'll walk you through the process, take a sample and save you from having to bring your own lab equipment.
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Natural Ways to Increase Seminal Fluid
If you’re wondering how to increase semen volume overnight, you’ll need a time machine. Otherwise, you’re not likely to find an answer that helps. There’s no one-size-fits-all treatment to increase semen volume, and no evidence-based, FDA-approved "how to ejaculate more" drug — not yet, anyway.
Figuring out how to ejaculate more semen than usual in 24 hours is science fiction at the moment, but you can do some things to increase your overall ejaculatory function overtime, the way you build muscle by keeping a gym routine.
The most effective changes you can make to potentially increase semen production are:
Pelvic Floor Exercises
Quit Smoking
Keep a Healthy Diet and Weight
Cut Back on Masturbation
Protect Your Erections
Focus on Your Sperm Count
Now let’s look at how (and why) to make these changes in more detail.
Try Pelvic Floor Exercises
Your pelvic muscles play a major role in the velocity of your semen. If these muscles are particularly weak, you may fail to fully expel your ejaculate from your body. Guys wondering “how to cum a lot” or “how to cum more” could potentially be functioning just fine, except for the ejaculatory spasms themselves.
Luckily, there are exercises, commonly referred to as kegel exercises, that you can perform at home to strengthen your pelvic muscles.
In addition to improving your ability to ejaculate, pelvic floor training offers benefits like potentially reducing your risk of premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction.
Our guide to pelvic floor exercises explains how you can train your pelvic muscles, usually in a few minutes every day.
If You Smoke, Try to Quit
We know that smoking is generally bad for us, but did you know that it can wreak even more havoc on your sex life?
If increasing ejaculate over time is a priority for you, it might be time to kick the habit as part of your overall lifestyle changes.
In addition to causing erectile dysfunction, research suggests that smoking is linked to a reduction in average semen volume in men:
One study published in the journal BJU International in 2006 found a possible link between smoking and semen volume when it looked at the samples of non-smokers against mild, moderate and heavy smokers. A higher volume of cigarettes caused a reduction in semen volume at each level.
A different study of more than 1,600 men published in the journal Environmental Epidemiology found that smoking was associated with a marginally lower semen volume and reduced sperm count in otherwise healthy men, but it also found that cessation had a potential “restorative effect” for men who quit.
Resources like Smokefree.gov offer detailed guides and resources that you can use to make a quit plan and get support while you take steps to give up smoking.
Eat a Healthy Diet; Maintain a Healthy Weight
Eating a healthy diet can offer numerous benefits for your sexual performance, and at least one study has shown that a healthy diet is associated with healthier sperm overall.
Try to eat a balanced diet that’s built around fresh vegetables, fruits and lean sources of protein, all while limiting foods that are high in salt or saturated fat.
This may help improve blood flow to your penis and sexual stimulation, as well as prevent issues like ED.
Avoid Masturbating Before Sex
Like the water heater in a large family home, your body needs time to refill its tank before the next session.
Masturbation doesn’t affect sperm quality or contribute to sexual dysfunction, but if you’re concerned about your semen volume, masturbating ahead of the planned sex can definitely reduce the amount of hot water before everything runs cold.
Treat Erectile Dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction is a serious issue that can make semen volume somewhat irrelevant — if you can’t jump, you’re not going to have a great jump shot.
Plenty of lifestyle changes — better sleep, less drinking, exercise and stress management — can reduce your risk and, sometimes, the symptoms of ED. When that fails, medication can help, too.
The FDA has approved numerous evidence-based ED medications to treat sexual function issues. Research has found that these medications also work well for ejaculatory problems like premature ejaculation.
Common oral ED medications include:
Sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra®)
Vardenafil (Levitra®)
Avanafil (Stendra®)
In addition to treating ED, these medications may help improve your sexual confidence, which might make worries about your ejaculatory volume less of a concern during sex.
Understand How to Increase Your Sperm Count
Your ejaculatory volume isn’t the same thing as your sperm count. If you and a partner are trying to conceive, a healthy sperm count is far more important.
For most men, a single milliliter of ejaculate contains 20 to 150 million sperm. This is considered “normal” if at least 60 percent of the sperm display a normal shape and show motility (forward movement).
If you’re worried about your sperm count, you can get your semen tested to find out how much your ejaculate contains.
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Does Semen Volume Matter?
When does semen volume matter? Conception.
About 15 percent of couples experience infertility, and almost a third of these issues are due to male infertility. So, while your semen volume may not be the deciding factor here, the role it plays in fertility can matter.
While semen volume has zero impact on overall sperm count, it makes sense that the more fluid your swimmers have to swim around in, the better their odds are of making it to the egg.
If your semen volume is low and has a very low sperm count, this may be a result of genital tract obstructions. These could be caused by a variety of health conditions, including sexually transmitted diseases.
Testosterone deficiency, or “low T” as it is sometimes called, is a condition in which your body doesn’t produce enough of the testosterone hormone. Often, this is a result of a condition called hypogonadism. If you suspect low T as a possible culprit, talk to your healthcare provider about testing.
Aside from semen volume, both sperm quality and count also play a helping hand (they're what ultimately decide your fertility level).
What Causes Low Semen Volume?
It’s completely normal for your ejaculation volume to vary from one day to the next, especially if you have sex on an infrequent basis. However, if you notice that you’re ejaculating less than normal, it could be caused by a range of different factors, including:
Retrograde ejaculation
Aging
Recent previous ejaculations
Smoking cigarettes or other products that contain nicotine
Your overall health and well-being
Genetic factors
Let’s look at a few of these in more detail.
Retrograde Ejaculation
In men with a medical condition called retrograde ejaculation, semen travels backward into the bladder rather than out from the tip of the penis. Men with retrograde ejaculation still experience an orgasm, but less semen comes out as they ejaculate.
Severe cases may mean no ejaculation at all, and retrograde ejaculation may cause you to have cloudy urine after you ejaculate.
Common causes include:
Medical conditions, such as diabetes
Complications from prostate gland or bladder surgery
Medications for prostate and/or urethra problems
Medications for certain mental health issues
High blood pressure medications
Ejaculating Recently
Another common cause of low ejaculation volume and weak ejaculation is having masturbated and/or had sex recently or frequently. When you have a busy sex life and ejaculate often, it takes time for your body to replenish your supply. Recent or frequent ejaculation means less and less volume for each orgasm. Male fertility is complicated, but it’s also sometimes as simple as looking at the “fill” line on a metaphorical reservoir.
Getting Older
It’s common and normal for your semen production to decline as you age. Most men reach the highest semen volume production in their 30s, after which the volume of semen produced on a daily basis gradually declines. Getting older may also weaken your pelvic floor muscles, which are involved in the ejaculation process.
Other Causes
How to increase ejaculate volume is often a case-by-case problem to solve. In addition to retrograde ejaculation, how recently you’ve last ejaculated and your age, a variety of other factors can also affect your volume of ejaculation.
Other potential causes of low semen volume include:
Your eating habits and nutrient intake
Smoking cigarettes or other products that contain nicotine
Your overall health and wellness
Genetic factors
Dehydration (this one’s easy to fix — drink lots of water)
If you don’t see any obvious causes in this list or if you’re unsure whether these causes describe your situation, talking to a healthcare provider is a great way to get some clarity.
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The Bottom Line on How to Increase Semen Volume
There’s no easy, one-size-fits-all tip to increasing your seminal fluid production and ejaculating more when you reach orgasm. In fact, we’d argue that most people aren’t focused on the right parts of the volume problem in the first place.
Here’s what’s really important:
You can improve your semen volume without a professional. Simple things like practicing pelvic floor exercises, quitting smoking, sticking to a balanced diet and avoiding masturbation before sex can all potentially have a positive effect on your ejaculation volume.
A healthcare provider can help you identify the problems. Sometimes it’s easier to ask for help. A physical exam can help you find out if you have any health issues that could affect your ability to ejaculate properly or maintain optimal sexual performance.
Ask the right people. Medical advice from a urologist or other urology professional can help you determine if your testosterone levels, sperm motility, the sperm production in your testicles or some other part of the process is affecting your reproductive wellness.
Focus on what’s important. Voluminous ejaculation is fun for the movies, but it’s not nearly as important as health and motility if you’re trying to conceive.
Interested in learning more about improving your sexual function? Our guide to having a healthy sex life covers everything you need to know, from successfully communicating with your partner to using medication to treat common sexual performance issues.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information contained herein is not a substitute for and should never be relied upon for professional medical advice. Always talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of any treatment or medication.