What is the most important part of the semen analysis?
A – Abnormalities which may not allow enough sperm cells to “swim” to an egg and fertilize that egg are crucial to identify. It is necessary to know how many sperm cells are present in a sample (concentration), how much sample is typically produced (volume), and how many of the sperm cells are actually swimming (motility.) There are normal ranges for all of these aspects below which pregnancies happen less often. In addition, the shape of the sperm cell helps us understand how easy or difficult it may be for a sperm to actually bind to and fertilize an egg. The morphology score is the percentage of normally shaped cells in a sample, and as the percentage of normally shaped sperm declines, fewer pregnancies are seen.
