What causes sperm to turn red and can it be cured?

In a healthy male, semen has a characteristic greyish-white, slightly opalescent color. If you suddenly notice that the color has changed, this is not a reason to immediately panic and sort out all known diseases: from the most trifling to the deadly. First, the severity of the deviation and how long ago it appeared is important. Serious pathologies will also make themselves felt with other painful manifestations: frequent running to the toilet in a small way and difficult urine output, erectile dysfunction and other disorders.

If red sperm is not accompanied by any pathological manifestations and disappears after a short time, this can be caused by:

• Prolonged sexual abstinence or too frequent sexual intercourse - if a man has not had intimacy for a long time, his sperm acquires a yellowish tint, an overly turbulent sex life leads to the fact that the sperm population does not have time to replenish with mature cells, and the ejaculate seems more transparent.< /li>
• The use of beets - after a fair portion of a dish from this vegetable, sperm, like urine, turns pinkish or red. Foods that contain food coloring have the same effect. But from citrus fruits or carrots, the ejaculate turns yellow.
• The use of a number of drugs.
• In old age.

Also, red sperm appears with minor traumatic injuries of the urethral mucosa during excessively violent sexual contact, sharp frictions. This condition is also observed after not particularly accurate masturbation. In both cases, the healing of damaged tissues leads to the restoration of the normal color of the sperm. One should take into account the fact that such a situation is common among the representatives of the stronger sex under forty, but when a man of mature years notices such changes in himself, this signals a serious violation.

For what reasons does the violation develop?

The physiological reasons why the sperm turned red are:

• Prostate diseases - blood impurities in the ejaculate appear in the chronic form of prostatitis, especially when the formation of stones in the gland acts as a complication of a long-term disease. Often hemospermia is observed with adenocarcinoma of the prostate. In addition, this pathological condition can occur in the postoperative period after removal of benign hypertrophy, brachytherapy or biopsy.

Pink semen indicates the content of erythrocytes, or red blood cells, in it. The presence of blood elements in the ejaculate is called hemospermia.

• Pathologies of the urethral canal - often hemospermia is observed with infectious urethritis, narrowing of the lumen and trauma to the urethra, detection of malignant and benign tumors. In rare cases, patients have varicose lesions of venous vessels located in the urethra, and pressure drops cause small hemorrhages.
• Disease condition of the seminal vesicles - inflammatory processes as a result of infection with pathogenic microorganisms, viruses or fungi, cystic tumors, amyloidosis (peptide metabolism disorder).
• Phimosis is a pathological narrowing of the foreskin, as a result of which there is a partial or complete impossibility of exposing the head of the penis.

It is not uncommon for pink semen to be mistaken for impurities in the ejaculate of menstrual blood from the female vagina. For an accurate determination, the use of a condom is recommended.

If the semen suddenly acquires a bright scarlet color, and blood streaks are clearly visible in it, this usually indicates microtrauma of the urethral canal that occurred during sexual contact. In this case, the walls of capillary vessels are damaged, which is associated with minor bleeding. After two or three days, the integrity of the capillaries is restored, and the ejaculate becomes a normal color. When the redness does not disappear for a long time, the color darkens, the sperm gradually becomes brown, this indicates the pathology of the testes.

How is a pathology diagnosed?

The doctor asks the patient in detail about how long ago he noticed such deviations in himself, how often this happens, and whether it is accompanied by any other painful sensations. Also, a man should tell if he has recently undergone diagnostic procedures that can cause hemospermia, whether surgical interventions have been carried out. Be sure to report the use of medications.

After examining the external genital organs and the prostate, the specialist directs the patient to the following examinations:

• Complete blood count and coagulogram.
• Bacteriological culture.
• TRUS of the prostate.
• Determination of the concentration of the PSA antigen in the blood - is mandatory for the diagnosis of prostate adenocarcinoma, shown to men who have reached the age of forty.
• Cystoscopy of the urethral canal.
• Spermogram.

The shade of red semen is a characteristic sign of certain diseases. If the cause of hemospermia is the pathology of the urethral canal, the ejaculate is scarlet in color, with visible streaks. In case of disorders of the testes and their appendages, the sperm becomes brown in color.

Methods of therapy

To select an effective treatment regimen, it is necessary to accurately determine the causes of the violation. In the case of the diagnosis of an infectious process caused by pathogenic microorganisms, a course of antibacterial drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs is prescribed. To select an effective antibiotic, a laboratory test for sensitivity is preliminarily carried out. Antibiotic therapy is also indicated for injury, to prevent infection of the wound.

Serious injuries, varicose veins, tumor formations, phimosis require surgical intervention. Most often, effective, timely therapy allows you to eliminate the violation and restore men's health.