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How Long Does A Sperm Survive Outside The Body?

Posted on Wed, 6 Apr 2016

Question: If my wife and I had sex and the freshly used condom accidentally mixed into the clothes I pitched into the dryer that runs at between 120 F - 130 F degrees. Would any of the sperm remaining in the condom that were not dry at least be dead?

Answered by Dr. Chintan Solanki (55 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
All sperms died

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Thanks for writing to us.

Once the semen dries up, sperm no longer survive and actually do not live for more than 20 to 60 minutes after being exposed to the environment.

In your case time has passed and at temperature you mentioned semen in condom becomes dry. Sperms cannot survive without fructose. All sperms become dead in that case.

Hope I have answered your query, I will be happy to help further.

Regards,
Dr Chintan Solanki.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Chintan Solanki (2 hours later)

My follow up question is this: The used condom I previously mentioned from me & my wife was first sent through the laundry cycle before the dryer cycle. I didn't have very much laundry detergent only enough for a small load when it was a medium load. So I dumped a good amount of bleach in the washer to make up for it. I did this even not knowing the used condom was mixed in. Somebody told me that bleach doesn't sterilize laundry without detergent. Is this true? Wouldn't bleach mixed in even without much detergent kill sperm?

Answered by Dr. Chintan Solanki (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Yes only bleach can kill sperm

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thanks for follow up.

Yes only bleach can also kill sperms. As I mentioned earlier even without any bleach or detergent sperms cannot survive in environment for more than one hour so no possibility of any alive sperm is there.

Take care.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Chintan Solanki (4 hours later)

My final follow up: Even in the warm wash mode the rinse cycle dumps cold water brining the water temperature down in the washer to 68 degrees F. Is that shock in and of itself enough to kill sperm in the condom? That is my final follow-up. Thank you for your help and gracious patience with these questions.

Answered by Dr. Chintan Solanki (4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
they had died before that wash likely

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thanks for follow up.

There is no effect of shock on sperms. However before rinse cycle the way sperms in condom had been washed, they cannot survive. Already much time after ejaculation had been passed before condom went in wash. This long duration is sufficient to make the sperms dead.

In conclusion sperms in condom had died and none of them can be alive.

All the best.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Arnab Banerjee