Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic (L) celebrates with teammate Nemanja Matic after scoring a goal against Everton during their English Premier League soccer match at Goodison Park in Liverpool, northern England, August 30, 2014.
Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic (L) celebrates with teammate Nemanja Matic after scoring a goal against Everton during their English Premier League soccer match at Goodison Park in Liverpool, northern England, August 30, 2014. Reuters

Handsome men or men with "masculine" faces have lower quality of sperm, suggests a study conducted at the University of Valencia in Spain. The findings were published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

Men with masculine faces have always been believed to be good looking. However, according to a recent Spanish study, musculine-looking men might have low sperm quality. "As increased levels of testosterone have been demonstrated to impair sperm production, this finding may indicate a trade-off between investments in secondary sexual signalling (facial masculinity) and fertility," said researchers in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

According to Business Standard, using a special technique called Phenotype Linked Fertility Hypothesis (PLFH), the researchers found whether the ability to select fertile partners is exclusive of factors such as cultural background and sex.

As part of the study, profile color photographs of the front and right-side of each of the 50 males, who were part of the study, were taken. The pictures were then scanned and a black oval mask was placed over them to ensure that 62 Caucasian male students, who were recruited for the task of assessing, won't be attracted by their hairstyle.

The 50 males were asked to abstain from sexual intercourse and masturbation for three to five days immediately after which their semen was analyzed. The findings showed that men tend to overestimate the looks of other men in comparison to women.

Health MSN quoted professor Gab Kovacs, Monash IVF international medical director as saying that "attractiveness is a very difficult thing to measure" as each person has different tastes. Speaking about semen fertility, Kovacs said, "Most semen is fertile anyway, so it makes for little difference whether it's a little more or less fertile."

Kovacs thinks that it is useless to worry about not having a handsome face. Instead, the focus should be on living a healthy lifestyle.
Backed by research, listed below are few things one can do to increase the count and overall quality of the sperm.

Eat Lot of Fruits and Vegetables
Ohio's Cleveland Clinic analysed 12 studies conducted by researchers across the world and found that high intake of three antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables helped increase the sperm count by 70 per cent.
The three antioxidants in question are:
- beta-carotene - present in carrots, lettuce and spinach
- lutein - present in lettuce and spinach
- lycopene - present in tomatoes

Stop Peddling Too Much
While cycling is extremely beneficial to health, too much cycling can cause adverse effect on the quality of the sperm. According to a 2009 Spanish study and the University of Las Palmas, cycling for long duration can affect the shape and quality of the spermatozoids.

Avoid Stress
Stress, according to researchers, block Leydig cells which are known to regulate testosterone production. Too much of stress can stop your body from producing sperm altogether.

Take Cold Water Baths
The perfect temperature for producing sperms is 34.5 degrees Celsius, a little below body temperature. A three-year University of California study in 2007 found that five of 11 men who stopped taking hot baths experienced a sperm count rise of nearly 500 per cent.

Drink Coffee in Moderation
A study conducted by researchers from Sao Paolo University in Brazil in 2003 found that drinking moderate amount of coffee every day has the ability to improve the swimming speed of human sperm. However, at the same time, there are studies that show that drinking only three cups of coffee a day can harm the sperm.