How will my doctor test for male infertility?
It's important to remember that it takes two to make an embryo. So, just as there are female factors involved in infertility, there are male factors in infertility. The male has to produce a sufficient number of sufficiently viable sperm to be able to achieve fertilisation, and the delivery of the genetic material from the sperm into the egg that causes that egg to become an embryo. The best test that we have for this is a simple semen analysis. In other words, the man is asked to produce a specimen, typically into a cup or other kind of container, and then this sample is analysed in the laboratory. We measure the volume of the semen, we look at the concentration of sperm within the sample, we look at what proportion of the sperm are swimming, and then we also look under high magnification to see what proportion of the sperm heads have a normal shape. If the sperm heads are abnormally shaped, this may be an indication of male factor infertility, and a strong indication that if we put those sperm in with an egg, that fertilisation in fact will not be achieved. It's important to realise that semen analyses vary from time to time, and therefore, that first of all we need a standardised period of time of abstinence, meaning a lack of ejaculation for at least forty eight hours, and no more than seven days. Also it's important to repeat the test at least once. In other words, it's good to have at least two tests to substantiate that whatever the finding is, is really true; that a normal sperm is normal again, perhaps a month later, or that an abnormal sperm specimen is an indication of an abnormal semen analysis.
