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Does Semen Retention Raise Testosterone? What the Research Shows

By , author of Sound Mind · Published · How we source

The short answer

No good evidence shows that semen retention raises testosterone in a lasting or useful way. The well-known “day-7 spike” comes from a 2003 study that its journal retracted in 2021.1 Beyond that, a single small study, with no comparison group, measured higher testosterone in 10 men after three weeks of sexual abstinence.2 No research supports a 90-day timeline or “stages.” Choose abstinence for reasons that don’t hang on a hormone.

Retention is a choice you’re free to make, for reasons of your own. It isn’t a treatment, and it isn’t a testosterone trick.

Maybe you’ve seen the chart: a hormone spike on day 7, a “flatline” around week three, and a sharper, more confident man by day 90. Maybe a thread told you that every ejaculation drains something you can’t spare. If you’re weighing retention, you deserve the actual evidence, and you deserve to have your reasons taken seriously.

While I was finding my way out of my own loop, I read everything I could get my hands on: religious texts, psychology, mysticism, and the lives of yogis, ascetics, and athletes who chose abstinence. Abstinence doesn’t need a hormone claim to be worth choosing. That matters, because the hormone claim doesn’t hold up.

Does semen retention increase testosterone?

Not in any way research has shown to last or to matter. Once the retracted paper below is set aside, the case rests on one small, short study.

In 2001, researchers in Germany measured hormones in 10 healthy men twice, with three weeks of sexual abstinence in between. Their testosterone came back higher the second time. Orgasm itself left it unchanged.3 Here’s what that study leaves open:

  • Ten men. Too few to say how most men respond.
  • No comparison group. Nobody checked whether men who carried on as usual would have shifted too.
  • Three weeks. Nothing was measured after that, so it says nothing about month three or year three.
  • No health outcome. It didn’t test energy, mood, muscle, or drive.

Even a real bump might not change how you feel. Desire follows testosterone only loosely within the normal range. When researchers tracked 1,632 men in midlife and later, low libido went with testosterone only a little below everyone else’s.4

Where does the “day-7 testosterone spike” come from?

From a Chinese study of 28 men, published in 2003 and retracted in December 2021. A retracted paper has been withdrawn from the scientific record, so it shouldn’t be relied on.5

The paper reported a peak in testosterone on the seventh day without ejaculation. That single number traveled into charts, videos, and forum posts, and the retraction didn’t travel with it. Even before it was pulled, the paper didn’t describe levels that kept climbing.6

Does long-term abstinence or celibacy raise testosterone?

Nobody knows. No study found for this guide has tracked men’s testosterone through months or years of abstinence.7

So any claim about day 30, day 90, or day 365 is a guess, however confident it sounds. What has been measured is more ordinary. In a small study, young men limited to five hours of sleep a night for a week saw their daytime testosterone fall by 10 to 15%.8 If protecting your hormones is the goal, your bedtime has better evidence behind it than any day count.

Is there a semen retention timeline? 90 days, stages, and the “flatline”

There’s no research-backed timeline. The 90-day mark and the “stages” come from online communities, not from studies.9

The flatline is something men really report, though there’s no evidence it’s a stage. Researchers read 104 abstinence journals kept by men on an online forum for quitting porn. Close to a third described a stretch where their desire dropped sharply, and they called it the flatline. Some felt low and disengaged with it, and some were tempted to “test” whether everything still worked.10 No one has studied what causes it or how long it lasts.

What to do with that:

  • If your drive dips for a week or two, note it and keep going. One flat week tells you very little.
  • If it drops and stays down, or your morning erections fade, see a doctor instead of waiting it out. In a large European study, three symptoms tracked low testosterone most clearly: fading morning erections, weaker desire, and trouble getting erections.11
  • If you feel the pull to test yourself, recognize it as worry looking for reassurance. A doctor can answer the question better than a test at midnight can.

What about the benefits men report on Reddit?

Men do report benefits, and their experience is real to them. What nobody has shown is that holding back semen is what caused it.

In the same study of forum journals, many men who stuck with abstinence described better mood, more energy, clearer thinking, focus, and confidence. The researchers said proper studies are still needed to rule out other explanations. Their sample probably leaned toward men for whom abstinence was going well.12

Other explanations are easy to imagine. When a man steps out of a late-night loop, several things can shift at once: his sleep, his evenings, and his sense of keeping his word to himself. Any of them could lift his energy and mood. In that study, many men gave up masturbation mainly to make staying away from porn easier, not out of belief in semen retention itself.13

So read those threads as stories about what changed in a man’s life. They aren’t evidence about hormones.

Is semen retention worth trying?

It can be, if the reasons are yours. Sound Mind by Adam Hale treats three targets as equally legitimate: abstinence, moderation, or a healthy sex life with your partner. None outranks the others.

Good reasons don’t need a lab result:

  • Faith. Your tradition may call you to it, for a season or for life.
  • Focus. You want a stretch where your attention goes to something you’re building.
  • Knowing yourself. You want to find out who you are without it.

What doesn’t hold up is choosing it to raise your testosterone. If that’s your main reason, the evidence is too thin to carry the weight.

Two habits keep the choice healthy. First, leave porn out, whatever your target. If you’re dealing with compulsion, you don’t need it, and this plan for quitting porn without shame shows how to step away. Second, settle two things in advance: what you’ll call a slip, and your first move after one. When the only rule is “never,” one slip can feel like total failure, and that feeling tends to stretch one bad night into a bad week. Relapse researchers named this the abstinence violation effect.14

If faith is your reason, there are guides for Christian men and Muslim men too.

Try this now

Strip your reasons down to the ones that stand on their own. It takes about five minutes, with a pen.

  1. List every reason you have for retention, one per line. Include the ones you’d be a little embarrassed to say out loud.
  2. Cross out any reason that depends on testosterone, a day count, or a promised stage.
  3. Read what’s left. That’s your real why. Copy it to the top of a fresh page.
  4. If nothing is left, look again at your target. Moderation, or a sex life centered on your partner, may suit you better.
  5. Write two rules under it: what counts as a slip, and the first small, kind thing you’ll do after one. Then add a third line: wet dreams don’t count.
  6. Set a review date four weeks out, at a calm hour of the day, to decide whether the target still fits.

Abstinence that rests on your own reasons

Here’s the healthy version of this choice. You know why you made it, and that reason would survive a blood test either way. Your drive is still there, and some days it’s strong, which is fine. A wet dream is a fact of the night. A morning erection is a good sign. You don’t keep a day count, so a slip becomes something to learn from instead of a total to lose.

Once a month you check in with your body. If something changes and stays changed, you see a doctor without embarrassment. And if the target stops fitting your life, you change it on purpose, at a calm hour, without calling it failure.

When to see a doctor about testosterone

If testosterone worries you, a blood test will tell you more than any theory. Ask for one if:

  • your desire has dropped and stayed down for more than a few weeks
  • your morning erections have faded or stopped
  • you have trouble getting or keeping an erection

Those are the three signs that track low testosterone best.15 Erection problems also deserve a heart check, because they can come before heart and blood-vessel trouble.16

Ask for the blood draw early in the morning, before you’ve eaten. Guidelines call for a fasting morning sample, and for confirming a low result with a second test.17 Doctors looking into a change in desire also check prolactin, and sometimes thyroid.18 One sentence is enough to start: “My drive and my morning erections have changed, and I’d like my testosterone checked.”

Talk to a doctor or therapist, too, if worry about losing semen takes up hours of your day, or you keep checking your body for damage. Worry plus checking can be a sign of OCD, and it’s treatable. Therapists trained in OCD use a form of CBT built for it, known as exposure and response prevention.19 Unwanted Sexual Thoughts: When It’s OCD, and What Helps explains more.

If a slip ever leaves you thinking about harming yourself, don’t wait. In the US, call or text 988. In Canada, call or text 9-8-8. In the UK and Ireland, call Samaritans on 116 123. In Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Elsewhere, findahelpline.com lists free services near you.20

Questions men ask

Do wet dreams break semen retention?

No. A wet dream is an involuntary ejaculation during sleep, and most males have them: a 2026 review put the share at 70 to 90%.21 You didn’t choose it, so there’s nothing to log as a slip. Write that rule down before the first one happens.

Does semen retention make sperm healthier?

Not by the measures fertility doctors use. US fertility specialists put it plainly: going more than five days between ejaculations may cut sperm counts, and by 10 days semen quality starts to slip. Daily ejaculation didn’t push counts below normal in men whose semen started out normal.22 If you’re trying to conceive, see how often a man should ejaculate.

Is semen retention bad for your prostate?

Nobody has shown that. One large US study linked frequent ejaculation with a lower prostate cancer risk, but it was observational, so it shows a link and not a cause.23 The guide to ejaculation frequency explains what that study does and doesn’t show.

Is semen retention the same as quitting porn?

No. Quitting porn means no porn. Retention usually means choosing not to ejaculate at all. You can quit porn and keep masturbation or sex in your life. You can read Chapter 1 of Sound Mind free; it takes you through choosing a target and putting your reasons on paper.

Sources

  1. Jiang M, Xin J, Zou Q, Shen JW. “A research on the relationship between ejaculation and serum testosterone level in men.” Journal of Zhejiang University Science 2003;4(2):236–240. Retracted in December 2021 (retraction notice: doi:10.1631/jzus.2003.r236). Its abstract reported daily testosterone in 28 volunteers, a peak on the seventh day of abstinence, and no regular change after the peak. Cited here only to show where the claim comes from. Retraction notice · PMID 11760788↩︎

  2. Exton MS, Krüger TH, Bursch N, et al. “Endocrine response to masturbation-induced orgasm in healthy men following a 3-week sexual abstinence.” World Journal of Urology 2001;19(5):377–382. Ten healthy men, each tested before and after three weeks of abstinence. Testosterone was higher after the abstinence period and unchanged by orgasm. A before-and-after study with no control group: an early, small finding, not proof. Retraction notice · PMID 11760788↩︎

  3. Exton MS, Krüger TH, Bursch N, et al. “Endocrine response to masturbation-induced orgasm in healthy men following a 3-week sexual abstinence.” World Journal of Urology 2001;19(5):377–382. Ten healthy men, each tested before and after three weeks of abstinence. Testosterone was higher after the abstinence period and unchanged by orgasm. A before-and-after study with no control group: an early, small finding, not proof. Retraction notice · PMID 11760788↩︎

  4. Travison TG, Morley JE, Araujo AB, et al. “The relationship between libido and testosterone levels in aging men.” Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 2006;91(7):2509–2513. Low libido went with only slightly lower testosterone, so libido alone was a poor marker of testosterone. A link from a cohort study. PMID 16670164↩︎

  5. Jiang M, Xin J, Zou Q, Shen JW. “A research on the relationship between ejaculation and serum testosterone level in men.” Journal of Zhejiang University Science 2003;4(2):236–240. Retracted in December 2021 (retraction notice: doi:10.1631/jzus.2003.r236). Its abstract reported daily testosterone in 28 volunteers, a peak on the seventh day of abstinence, and no regular change after the peak. Cited here only to show where the claim comes from. Retraction notice · PMID 11760788↩︎

  6. Jiang M, Xin J, Zou Q, Shen JW. “A research on the relationship between ejaculation and serum testosterone level in men.” Journal of Zhejiang University Science 2003;4(2):236–240. Retracted in December 2021 (retraction notice: doi:10.1631/jzus.2003.r236). Its abstract reported daily testosterone in 28 volunteers, a peak on the seventh day of abstinence, and no regular change after the peak. Cited here only to show where the claim comes from. Retraction notice · PMID 11760788↩︎

  7. No study found for this guide or for Sound Mind has measured men’s testosterone across months or years of abstinence, or tested a 90-day timeline or “stages.” The hormone data begin and end with two papers: Jiang 2003 (retracted) and Exton 2001 (10 men, three weeks). Retraction notice · PMID 11760788↩︎

  8. Leproult R, Van Cauter E. “Effect of 1 week of sleep restriction on testosterone levels in young healthy men.” JAMA 2011;305(21):2173–2174. Ten men, each compared with himself after rested sleep. One small study. PMID 21632481↩︎

  9. No study found for this guide or for Sound Mind has measured men’s testosterone across months or years of abstinence, or tested a 90-day timeline or “stages.” The hormone data begin and end with two papers: Jiang 2003 (retracted) and Exton 2001 (10 men, three weeks). Retraction notice · PMID 11760788↩︎

  10. Fernandez DP, Kuss DJ, Griffiths MD. Archives of Sexual Behavior 2021;50(2):711–728. A qualitative analysis of 104 abstinence journals by men on an online porn-abstinence forum. Close to a third of members described a marked drop in desire during abstinence, which they called the “flatline”; some included low mood in it, and some were tempted to test their sexual function. Members who persisted commonly described better mood, energy, mental clarity, focus, and confidence. Many abstained from masturbation mainly to help them avoid porn, rather than from belief in semen retention. The authors call for prospective studies to rule out other explanations for the perceived benefits, and note the sample likely overrepresents members who found abstinence beneficial. A self-selected group, so it describes experience, not cause. PMID 33403533↩︎

  11. Wu FC, Tajar A, Beynon JM, et al. “Identification of late-onset hypogonadism in middle-aged and elderly men.” New England Journal of Medicine 2010;363(2):123–135. 3,369 men aged 40 to 79. Only three symptoms, all sexual (low desire, fewer morning erections, and erection problems), were clearly linked with low testosterone. PMID 20554979↩︎

  12. Fernandez DP, Kuss DJ, Griffiths MD. Archives of Sexual Behavior 2021;50(2):711–728. A qualitative analysis of 104 abstinence journals by men on an online porn-abstinence forum. Close to a third of members described a marked drop in desire during abstinence, which they called the “flatline”; some included low mood in it, and some were tempted to test their sexual function. Members who persisted commonly described better mood, energy, mental clarity, focus, and confidence. Many abstained from masturbation mainly to help them avoid porn, rather than from belief in semen retention. The authors call for prospective studies to rule out other explanations for the perceived benefits, and note the sample likely overrepresents members who found abstinence beneficial. A self-selected group, so it describes experience, not cause. PMID 33403533↩︎

  13. Fernandez DP, Kuss DJ, Griffiths MD. Archives of Sexual Behavior 2021;50(2):711–728. A qualitative analysis of 104 abstinence journals by men on an online porn-abstinence forum. Close to a third of members described a marked drop in desire during abstinence, which they called the “flatline”; some included low mood in it, and some were tempted to test their sexual function. Members who persisted commonly described better mood, energy, mental clarity, focus, and confidence. Many abstained from masturbation mainly to help them avoid porn, rather than from belief in semen retention. The authors call for prospective studies to rule out other explanations for the perceived benefits, and note the sample likely overrepresents members who found abstinence beneficial. A self-selected group, so it describes experience, not cause. PMID 33403533↩︎

  14. Marlatt GA, Gordon JR, eds. Relapse Prevention. Guilford Press, 1985. Summary: Larimer ME, Palmer RS, Marlatt GA. Alcohol Research & Health 1999;23(2):151–160. Tests of the abstinence violation effect are mixed. Larimer et al. 1999↩︎

  15. Wu FC, Tajar A, Beynon JM, et al. “Identification of late-onset hypogonadism in middle-aged and elderly men.” New England Journal of Medicine 2010;363(2):123–135. 3,369 men aged 40 to 79. Only three symptoms, all sexual (low desire, fewer morning erections, and erection problems), were clearly linked with low testosterone. PMID 20554979↩︎

  16. Thompson IM, Tangen CM, Goodman PJ, et al. “Erectile dysfunction and subsequent cardiovascular disease.” JAMA 2005;294(23):2996–3002. 9,457 men aged 55 and over; new erection problems went with later heart and blood-vessel events, and the authors say they should prompt a check of heart risk. A link, not proof. PMID 16414947↩︎

  17. Bhasin S, Brito JP, Cunningham GR, et al. “Testosterone therapy in men with hypogonadism: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline.” Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 2018;103(5):1715–1744: measure fasting morning total testosterone, and confirm a low result with a repeat morning fasting test. Corona G et al. “EAU Guidelines on Sexual and Reproductive Health: a summary of the 2026 recommendations for measurement and biochemical confirmation of hypogonadism.” European Urology Focus 2026 (online ahead of print): test in the morning, 7 to 10 a.m., while fasting. PMID 29562364 · PMID 42177105↩︎

  18. Rastrelli G et al. Recommendations from the fifth International Consultation on Sexual Medicine (ICSM 2024). Sexual Medicine Reviews 2025;13(4):433–455. Expert consensus: testing testosterone and prolactin is mandatory when evaluating men’s sexual problems, and thyroid disorders may play a part. PMID 40519205↩︎

  19. American Psychiatric Association practice guideline (Koran LM et al. American Journal of Psychiatry 2007;164(7 Suppl):5–53) and NICE guideline CG31. Both name CBT with exposure and response prevention (ERP) as a first-line treatment for OCD. The International OCD Foundation lists therapists at iocdf.org/find-help. PMID 17849776 · CG31↩︎

  20. Checked on each service’s official site in October 2026: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US), 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline (Canada), Samaritans (UK and Ireland), Lifeline Australia, and Find A Helpline. Numbers can change, so they’re re-checked with each update. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline · 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline · about 9-8-8 · Samaritans · Samaritans Ireland · Lifeline Australia · Find A Helpline↩︎

  21. Maiolino G, Fernández-Pascual E, Lledó-García E, Martínez-Salamanca JI. “Nocturnal emissions or wet dreams: modern evidence from a systematic scoping review.” Sexual Medicine Reviews 2026;14(1):qeag003. A review of 157 sources: wet dreams are involuntary, occur with or without a sexual dream, and affect 70 to 90% of males, most often teenagers. PMID 41665964↩︎

  22. Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. “Optimizing natural fertility: a committee opinion.” Fertility and Sterility 2022;117(1):53–63. Abstinence intervals longer than five days may lower sperm counts, intervals as short as two days go with normal sperm concentration, and semen measures begin to decline after 10 days or more. In a retrospective study of almost 10,000 samples, men with normal semen kept normal sperm concentration and motility even with daily ejaculation. The committee adds that semen measures may not fully predict how well sperm function. PMID 34815068 · full text at ASRM↩︎

  23. Rider JR, Wilson KM, Sinnott JA, et al. “Ejaculation frequency and risk of prostate cancer: updated results with an additional decade of follow-up.” European Urology 2016;70(6):974–982. 31,925 men followed from 1992 to 2010: 21 or more ejaculations a month, against four to seven, went with about a 20% lower risk, mainly of low-risk cancers. Self-reported and observational. PMID 27033442↩︎

This guide is education, not medical advice. Read our medical disclaimer and editorial standards.