Читать книгу Dad's Guide to Pregnancy For Dummies - Sharon Perkins - Страница 75

What exactly makes a semen specimen normal? The following guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) are deemed the ideal for baby making:

 Volume: About 1.5 to 5 milliliters of semen should be present in a single ejaculate, equaling about a teaspoon.

 Concentration: Strength in numbers is key. You need at least 20 million sperm per milliliter of ejaculate to hit the normal range.

 Motility: For every man, an average ejaculate contains dead, slow, and immobile sperm. However, at least 40 percent of your sperm in a single sample should be moving.

 Morphology: Shape is also important to reproduction, and the lab technician examining your sample takes a close look at how many of your swimmers are normally shaped. A normal amount of normally shaped sperm is considered to be anything above 30 percent.

 Trajectory: Graded on a 4-point scale, this test determines how many of your sperm are moving forward. A normal score is 2+.

 White blood cells: Too many white blood cells can indicate an infection in your groin. A passing grade is no more than 0 to 5 per power field.

 Hyperviscosity: Your semen sample should liquefy within 30 minutes after ejaculation. If it takes longer, it reduces the chances for sperm to swim before being expelled from the vagina.

 pH: Like an AA battery, your semen needs to be alkaline to avoid making the vagina too acidic and, ultimately, killing the sperm.

A semen analysis also evaluates the following:

 Head quality: The head of the sperm contains all the genetic material, so if the head is misshapen, it won’t be capable of fertilizing an egg.

 Midsection malaise: Believe it or not, this part of your sperm contains fructose, which gives your sperm energy to swim. If the levels are low, it can account for slow swimmers.

 Tail troubles: Much like a fish, a good tail is required for the sperm to swim forward. If too many of your sperm have no tail, multiple tails, or tails that are coiled or kinked, they won’t reach their destination.

A low sperm count may have you feeling, well, downright low. Feeling embarrassed is completely natural but also completely unnecessary. Infertility has no correlation to a man’s masculinity, nor does it have anything to do with the size of his penis. Having a low sperm count is no different from having asthma — it’s a medical condition that requires treatment.

Because sperm counts are created months out, you need to have a follow-up semen analysis to see whether the issue is corrected by lifestyle changes. Although you won’t be in a rush to do it all again anytime soon, whether your results are good or bad, schedule a follow-up analysis four to six weeks after the first one to get a better, more complete picture.