Male Infertility

Male infertility refers to the inability of males to achieve a pregnancy in a fertile female. The definition of WHO (World Health Organization) is that wife cannot be pregnant during at least 12 months of uncontracepted sexual life. The general accepted definition in China of male infertility is different from the WHO`s only in the duration of uncontrolled sexual life which extend to 24 months. There are many causes leading to male infertility, such as congenital malformation, male sex gland infection, endocrine dyscrasia, enorchia, varicocele and etc.

The ordinary semen collecting method

In order to ensure the reliability of semen collecting, there are several points should be aware:

1. No sexual life in 5-7 days before semen collecting.
2. Collecting semen in hospital is recommended, if in home, the semen should be contained in a clean container and keep warm using clothing in winter. Moreover, the semen should be checked in 30 minutes after collecting in home.
3. Make sure that all semen is collected, because the former part semen contains high quality sperms.

Clinical items and significance of ordinary semen check

Color of semen: the normal color is slightly hoar. If semen is restored in the body for a long time, the color will be a little yellow, compared with the normal one. Volume of semen: 2-6ml. When volume of semen is less than 1ml, or only 2 or 3 drops, it is the symptom of lack of semen. And this symptom will influence ordinary breeding. Time of liquefaction: the semen is a kind of glue and lump of ivory-white material when it is eliminated from the body. After 5-45 minutes, semen will liquefy into a kind of diluents and flowing liquid. If semen cannot be liquefied in this period, it will influence sperms` motoricity and activity ratio. PH value: the item to identify semen`s alkalinity and acidity. Below 7 is acidity, and above 7 is alkalinity. Generally speaking, semen is a kind of material of alkalescence, the normal value is 7.2-7.8. Density of sperm: sperm quantity in every milliliter of semen (million/milliliter). The basic unit of checking is million, for example, 50x106/ml is 50 million/ml. actually, and the previous criterion of normal semen is 60-100million/ml. At present, the quantity of semen which is above 20 million/ml, is the proof of fertility. Activity ratio of sperm: the normal ratio must above 60%, if there is not any live sperm existed, we call it znecrospermia.

Motoricity of sperm: the item to identify the active ability of sperm, it can be divided into 4 levels:

0: no activity or no forward motion
I: cacoethic activity or feeble forward motion
II: general activity, or medium forward motion
III: favourable activity or active forward motion

Normal criterion: the percentage of sperm of active forward motion should be greater than 40%. Sperms` motoricity and activity ratio are symbols to evaluate extrinsic motive ability of sperm. Several aspects are extremely important to identify the fertility ability, such as surviving time of sperms, ability of motion, quality of sperm and etc.

Modality of sperm: a normal sperm can be divided into three parts: head, body and tail. Actually its modality resembles the polliwog. However, there are many different kinds of modality, such as big head, small head, double heads, double tails. But these peculiar types of sperm are not greater than 25%.

Leucocyte: it is normal when leucocytes are less than 10 in every HPF. The increasing of leucocyte is the indication of inflammation; the typical examples are prostatitis, spermatocystitis, epididymitis and etc.

Abnormal phenomena in the ordinary semen check

Unliquefaction of semen, low quantity of sperms, and lack of sperms, low activity ratio of sperm, poor motoricity of sperm, and leucocytes existed in every HPF is greater than 10.




Key words: infertility; male infertility; prostatitis; epididymitis