Semen analysis

[Hannah1589]

Can anyone advise on what these results mean? Admin staff on the phone tried to say the results were normal but then when they were emailed through to us they don’t look normal 🤷‍♀️😢 He already had another test before this one and this was the repeat test.

[Hidden]

hi the morphology (the shape of the sperm) and density (the number of sperm) are low.

the morphology can be enhanced by multivitamin and sport and eating healthy

[Hannah1589 in reply to Hidden]

So frustrating as when he phoned up he was told it was all normal so they gave us false hope.

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi Hannah. All good apart from the morphology. Needs to be checked again in 2 months, but at the moment you are probably looking to have IVF/ICSI so as to select the right shaped sperm to inject singly into each egg collected during treatment cycle. Good luck! Diane

[Hannah1589 in reply to DianeArnold]

What about the density? Isn’t that low?

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK in reply to Hannah1589]

Hi Hannah. Yes, it is but the amount ejaculated is good which will help to compensate. See what a second sample show, but I feel certain they will find enough to use. Diane

[Hannah1589 in reply to DianeArnold]

hi so I am totally confused about this. Morphology and density are both low but volume high so thought this would make up for low density. But we saw fertility specialist for initial consultation yesterday and she was really dismissive of this. She just said that volume can include seminal fluid and so extra volume isn’t going to help. We were hoping IUI would be an option and I had thought this could help as they would pick out the best sperm but she was really recommending ICSI and just mentioned some couples try IUI but she was very negative about this. So I’m confused, can volume really compensate for low density? And does IUI have any benefits in terms of picking out the best sperm? She made it seem like IUI didn’t have much benefit over trying naturally for low morphology and low density. But surely they would pick out the best shaped sperm and there must be some benefit to injecting sperm higher up?

[soccerkt6]

Hi lovely

Was his morphology also low on his first test? If it was normal then this result is probably just a blip and a good preconception vitamin like Proxeed or Impryl should do the trick. However, if his morphology was also low on the first test it could be an indicator of an underlying issue like high sperm DNA fragmentation which you'd need to check with a sperm DNA fragmentation test.

Good luck xx

[JA-fnuk Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Call them back and ask for appointment to speak to a doctor to go over the results with you and your partner and they should be able to explain it to you both . Looks like morphology is low that may mean it would take longer to achieve an natural pregnancy and that you would benefit from having some fertility treatmentTake care

Janet

[Caprisun123]

Optimum sperm morphology should be 4% or above

[FrancyItaly]

Normally before doing this test you should abstain for 4-5 days and I can see the period of abstinence is only 2 days? The morphology is low but they will probably do ICSI. Does he take any supplements? My husband’s morphology improved from 4% to 9% between the 2 tests he did x

[Hannah1589 in reply to FrancyItaly]

did he do anything to help improve his results? We may get test repeated and abstain longer to see if that changes it at all.

[FrancyItaly in reply to Hannah1589]

I think it might change. My husband took Proceive supplements for men x

[Hannah1589 in reply to FrancyItaly]

Thanks for replying. My husband has been taking Wellman vitamins. Morphology was only 1% though so very low.

[FrancyItaly in reply to Hannah1589]

I’ve also heard about Impryl which is meant to be good but we have not used it x

[Hannah1589]

Just coming back to my post from a few months ago. A lot has happened - false cancer scare, turned out to be large fibroid and now had surgery to remove. Consultant said unlikely this the cause of fertility issues this time around. Husband repeated sperm analysis and both times morphology low. GP was very relaxed about it and told us to repeat tests after my surgery but now waiting for our GP appt in December. We have two children so this is secondary infertility for us. Don’t know what to make of it all. GP was very relaxed and didn’t mention needing fertility treatments like IVF but I don’t see how we can conceive naturally. Unlikely we will do IVF though as we already have two children. Not sure what the next step for us should be, other than repeating the tests but I don’t see what that is going to achieve? Will it be near impossible to conceive naturally with these sperm results? If that’s the case I wish GP would be honest and just tell us that.