The sperm test results – what we look for?

My name’s Sara Matthews, I’m a subspecialist fertility doctor based at the Portland hospital in London.

I’m going to have a chat with you today about doing a sperm test and interpreting the results.

So it’s results time guys, your GP might contact you. You might have to go and see them, but it’s nerve-wracking.

So what are they going to tell you on the sperm test?  Most times the GP will just say it’s okay or it’s not okay.

Well, I’m a little bit more detailed than that because when you look at sperm, there’s actually more than just okay and not okay that can impact on the chance of you becoming pregnant.

When we look at sperm, we look at count ,we look at motility, we look at morphology.

So are they good looking sperm? Are they all funny looking? and is this supporting float okay? and does the immune system have any reaction to the sperm that might stop them working? is there infection in it?

So there’s quite a lot of detail and so when you look at the sperm test, there’s certain parameters.

So look at the reference ranges, and I can tell you a couple of extra things that will give you pointers to what might cause a problem in any of those.