According to a study, shapely sperm is the best indicator of a man's fertility, that rewrites the standards for analyzing semen samples. According to Dr. Dav Guzhik, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Cleavland, every treatment for infertility depends upon first establishing what's normal and abnormal. The World Health Organization's widely used standards to classify semen as normal if it contains 10 million sperm per milliliter and at least half of them are moving around. But the cut-off points for who is fertile and who is sterile are not particularly clear.
According to them, the criteria for the percentage of well-shaped sperm have changed over the years. Guzick and doctors at seven other universities studied sperm from the men in 600 infertile couples and 500 couples who had children. His study found that men were most likely to be fertile if their semen had more than 48 million sperm per milliliter, more than 52 percent of them were moving, and more than 10 percent of them looked normal. They were likely to be infertile if there were fewer than 12.5 million sperm per milliliter, fewer than 28 percent were moving and fewer than 8 percent were well-formed.A well-shaped sperm has an oval head and whippy tail. Circular heads, enlarged heads and tails that are scrunched up are some of the common problems. Thet feel that although the 3 percent difference between the number of shapely sperm in fertile and infertile men's semen seems small, it was the most reliable indicator. This is will be a valuable tool for infertility specialists.
About one in six couples has trouble conceiving. In one-third or more of those cases, it is the man who is infertile.
