A study by Periyasamy et al was published in Fertility Sterility in December 2017., that investigated if short abstinence from intercourse (2-7 days) compared to abstinence longer than 7 days has an influence on live birth rate in IVF procedures.

Data from 1,030 IVF procedures were analyzed in this retrospective study. The results showed that women with partners who had long sexual abstinence had lower rates of implantation, clinical pregnancy and live births, compared to women whose partners had shorter period of abstinence.

Previously published studies had shown that longer abstinence leads to damage of sperm DNA because of longer exposure to oxidative stress caused by dead sperm and white blood cells, which ultimately leads to lower quality of sperm. Using such sperm in IVF cycles can lead to lower implantation and live birth rates. Also, data on effects of abstinence on intrauterine insemination success rate can be found in the literature. This data shows that best results are achieved when abstinence is shorter than 5 days.

The results of the Periyasamy et al. study supports the usual practice of standard period of abstinence which agrees with the recommendations of World Health Organization that suggest abstinence of 2-7 days, while recommendations of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology suggest abstinence of 3-4 days.