Borderline DNA frag results 31%

[MontsJ]

My husbands sperm analysis results are incredible, but his DNA frag is 31% (comet test). We’ve seen a urologist who told us essentially he was surprised we were there, and that with such a high sperm count - one of the highest he’s ever seen - we didn’t need to worry. He also described the sperm DNA frag results as ‘normal’. Then a few das ago I saw another post with someone saying they were advised by their clinic that their sperm DNA frag result of 34% was high and that even with IVF they would likely struggle to conceive. I now feel really confused. How can 31% be normal?

[Endofitall]

You might find this helpful. examenlab.com/for-men/your-...

There are 3 parts to the results that need to be considered in the results. People aren’t always talking about the same numbers. It might be the 34% someone else talked about referred to unhealthy sperm (where it would be much too high) or healthy sperm (where it would be much too low)

Also I found it helpful to think about how the total number of sperm is a factor so if someone has lots of sperm, even if a proportion have fragmented DNA, there are still lots of sperm with normal DNA. Whereas if someone has low sperm count there are many fewer available with good DNA and so the proportion with high DNA fragmentation are a bigger problem.

Hope that helps

My DH who has high count and motility was advised to reduce his abstinence period as the standard clinic 3-5 day advice wasn’t helping fragmentation and morphology (normal but borderline)- with reducing to 1-2 days his results for those were great too. It seems general gist is that if he has high counts longer abstinence isn’t helpful as the sperm sit around in the tubes and their dna gets fragmented. My DH has been advised to ejaculate every 1-2 days in lead up to IVF cycle and then have 24h abstinence before the egg retrieval.

[MontsJ in reply to Endofitall]

I really appreciate the reply. His percentage of unhealthy sperm is higher than the reference range, and the percentage of healthy sperm is at the very lowest end of the reference range. He is probably the healthiest person I know and has none of the other risk factors to improve on.

Am I right in understanding the that all you needed to improve your other half’s DNA frag was reduce abstinence period? Did your clinic advise this?

[Endofitall in reply to MontsJ]

My DH is similar - normal BMI, no alcohol, moderate exercise, good diet. He was already on supplements. My DH is mid 30s. I know age can be a factor.

Our clinic had no interest in doing the dna fragmentation as my DH’s semen analysis was “sparkling” “super sperm” etc. After 5 failed transfers with good quality blasts we just wanted to rule out any issue there and my DH was keen to make sure all ok given everything I was being put through. We saw a clinical andrologist at Fertility Solutions and had the male tests done there. Our clinic are happy to go along with the abstinence advice as they can see it’s made things even better in standard analysis in terms of morphology.

[MontsJ in reply to Endofitall]

I really appreciate this information, I’ve asked my husband to continue the shorter abstinence period I’d asked him to implement. I’m so sorry you had to go through so many failed transfers, I hope if you haven’t had success yet that it’s right around the corner 😊

[MontsJ in reply to Endofitall]

Can I also ask did your other half introduce any new supplements that could have helped improve his DFI?

[Endofitall in reply to MontsJ]

He was already on wellman conception. And he had a sperm sos test showing low reactive oxygen species (so we assumed enough antioxidants anyway) so we didn’t change supplements. X

[MontsJ in reply to Endofitall]

thank you for the info 😊

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

HIi. In my book below 26% is normal. Best guided by your clinic. . Diane

[MontsJ in reply to DianeArnold]

Hi Diane, thank you for replying. Can I ask what guidebook you have. Examen use the WHO guidelines.