There are numerous reports about young ladies getting pregnant in the pool. Most of these reports say that it occurred due to the content of sperms in the pool water.
Most pools are shared with people of different genders, and it is not rare for some people to do all the different things in the pool.
Theoretically, that may sound possible. After all, if there are a few million microscopic swimmers in the pool water, why can’t some of them achieve their target or make someone pregnant?
So, can one get pregnant in a pool?
The answer is, No. Yes, big No. There is no proven case of such pregnancy. Most such reports in the media were fake, or they were later determined to be false.
There are numerous reasons why getting pregnant in a pool is almost zero, if not surely nil. The only way to get pregnant in a pool is by having unprotected sex.
Sperms aren’t great swimmers in the water
Sperms are known to be great swimmers but in the ejaculate and vaginal secretions that are rich in various nutrients and biologically active substances.
However, sperms cannot swim far away in pool water that is contaminated and usually chlorinated.
Sperm motility, or rather lack of it, is one of the leading causes of male infertility. Sperms that would come in contact with water would become immotile in seconds.
Thus, there is no way that they could reach the sexual organs of female swimmers.
Sperms aren’t great survivors outside the body fluids
Sperms aren’t made to survive in the harsh outside environment. Moreover, most, if not all pools, use different disinfectants to prevent the dissemination of infections. All this means that sperms cannot survive for long in pool water.
Most estimates or experiments seem to indicate that sperms will become immotile in pool water almost immediately and will eventually die in seconds or at best in a few minutes.
It would be false to compare sperms with microbes. Most microbes are small and tough; some of them have evolved to survive for long in the harsh environment.
Some of the microbes can even resist disinfectants like chlorine. However, these things do not imply male sperms.
Getting pregnant is not so easy – for most females
It takes billions of sperm to make females pregnant. It is very rare for any female to become pregnant through a single sexual act. Moreover, male fertility is in decline these days.
Studies show that on average, it takes 60-70 sexual contacts or about six months of unprotected sex for most couples to conceive a child.
Not to forget that during each act, 100-500 million sperms are released. And yet, in most of the cases, any sperm fails to make its way up to the female egg.
Sperms have a long journey to make
There is a reason why millions of sperms fail to fertilize a female egg cell in so many cases. Sperm has to travel quite a distance and only the strongest of them can do it.
Many people wrongly think that fertilization occurs in the vagina or uterus. Fertilization takes place in so-called fallopian tubes.
This means that sperms ejected in the vagina have to swim to the uterus and then find their way to fallopian tubes.
Sperms can survive for about 4-5 days inside the female body. Whereas, the female egg survives for mere 12-24 hours.
And not to mention that females ovulate less than 500 times during their lifetime. All this means that getting pregnant requires lots of planning and regular sex at the right time.
What do we conclude regarding the chances of getting pregnant in a pool?
Above are a few of the reasons why getting pregnant is almost impossible in a pool. This explains why there is no known case of such a pregnancy except some false claims or fake news.
It means that if any male ejaculates in a pool, near an ovulating female, sperms can still not get into her body. Sperms will immediately get diluted, become immobile, and die in seconds, or max in minutes.
Moreover, any female swimming in a pool will be wearing a swimming suit that would act as a physical barrier. In case someone ejaculates at a short distance to her, sperms still have nil chances of fertilizing.
Even if we assume that few sperms were somehow able to enter the female vagina (though such chances are almost nil), the experience of fertility clinics shows that such a quantity of already damaged sperms would not suffice.
Science shows that even for artificial insemination of females, there should be at least 10 x 10(6) spermatozoa per ml. And most of them should not be not just mobile, but highly or progressively mobile.
In fact, there is no reported case when a sexual partner of women, let’s say ejaculated near her in a bathtub and that resulted in a pregnancy. The pool is altogether a different thing.
To conclude, this means that it is almost impossible for sperms to remain healthy and motile in a pool for long.
Impossible to penetrate female sexual organs. This means that the risk of getting pregnant in a pool is just an urban myth.
Dr. Preet Pal SB is a physician (M.D. Medicine) with a specialization in diabetes (Fellowship in diabetes, Royal Liverpool Academy). He has a particular interest in metabolic disorders, considering that they are rising in every corner of the world, more so in India.