Fertility: S01 E15 – What is a semen analysis? – Kristy Yenick

I’m an embryologist and andrologist at the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine today I’m going to be talking about what a semen analysis is and a little bit about male factor infertility. So what is a semen analysis who would order this why do guys need to get checked out it’s kind of a scary concept but it’s really important for male reproductive health and male Factor infertility is really complex actually there’s lots of factors that can contribute to male factor infertility in your doctor can gain a better understanding by ordering a semen analysis a semen analysis is a diagnostic tool now who would this be used for this would be used for men who are trying to conceive a child with their partner thiis could also be used for men who actually just underwent a vasectomy and we need to make sure that the vasectomy in fact worked and there’s no longer any sperm production going on or this could be a general family practitioner gaining a better understanding of the sperm or reproductive health as a part of other factors that contribute to his own individual medical history and what he’s going through at that time if it’s hormonal so male factor infertility can be quite complex but a semen analysis is a diagnostic tool that is used in a laboratory. A semen analysis can be obtained and then once that sample is obtained we will then process it in the laboratory and we’re looking at a few things when it comes to a semen analysis. Semen analysis we are taking into consideration the volume how much ejaculate do we see we’re also looking at concentration which just means the sperm overall we’re looking at how many of them there are in the sample under the microscope do they look okay do they look abnormal if the anatomy of the sperm itself where is zoning in on and we’re looking at with careful consideration that the head of the sperm and the tail of a sperm which can be affected and can be abnormal so we want to make sure that when we’re looking at a semen analysis that the sperm itself actually under the microscope looks okay that it checks out and then we’re going to take into consideration a few different categories are are there good modal alive sperm are they swimming in an in a progressive forward motion that is capable of inseminating an egg or they just dead lying and twitching, there’s lots of different types of progressions that sperm can have and still working to give the sperm itself and actual grade on progression in the way in the direction it’s moving we are also going to look at the the number of sperm that are moving in that for progression so not all sperm move the same way some swim backwards some swim in circles some swim in that normal forward progression so when we are assessing a semen analysis we refer to the 5th edition of the World Health Organization lower reference limit so there’s lots of numbers were looking at here but the numbers that we want to compare next to or the numbers that we start to have a concern with fall below a certain reference limit which is we’re looking at volume how many milliliters of ejaculate do we seen a semen analysis and we like to see 1.5 ml or greater and then we’re looking at concentration which means both alive and dead sperm is 15 million / ml we like to see at least 40% of sperm alive in the sample. Spermatogenesis in the human body is very complex and it takes about three months to complete from immature sperm to the sperm that is present in the ejaculate that day and a mature spermatozoa or sperm is what is needed to inseminate and egg and achieve pregnancy so the same analysis gives a lot of different information that your doctor will obtain and is a helpful diagnostic tool to understand. Thank you for watching today and if you have any questions regarding andrology or male reproductive health please call our office at the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine, we would be happy to answer your questions.