MELBOURNE: Men, please note: If you think that limiting sex will boost your sperm count, you are wrong. If researchers are to be believed, sex every day will improve your fertility.

Yes, according to a study by scientists in Australia, regular sex not only boosts male sperm quality but also helps those who suffer fertility problems to improve their chances of fatherhood.

"Ejaculating more frequently, that is daily, improves sperm DNA damage in most men by a decent amount. Prior to in vitro fertilisation (IVF), for example, men are abstaining a lot more than normal and perhaps sperm DNA increases more than usual.

"Men think if they abstain for longer times before, say, ovulation that their sperm will be better. There may be more volume and numbers but DNA damage may increase," according to lead researcher Dr David Greening of Sydney.

In fact, the researchers came to the conclusion after carefully looking at the sperm quality of nearly 42 men whose spouses had either failed to become pregnant through IVF or had repeatedly miscarried.

The team found that when those men had no sex for three days, their sperm contained high levels of DNA damage. Tested again after having sex every day for a week, the amount of damage dropped by a third.

"Among those men whose fertility problems stem from genetic damage to their sperm rather than a low sperm count, abstaining from sex makes their difficulties worse," Greening has observed. The findings have been presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's annual conference in Washington.