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Conception

When's the best time to get pregnant? Use our interactive ovulation calculator to work out when you're most fertile and most likely to conceive.

Original poster

Low morphology - should we continue?

27 replies

Confused865 · 24/08/2023 08:27

I posted yesterday but I know a bit more today, and so hope it's okay to start a new thread which is a bit more focused.

My husbands sperm results have come back and it looks like he has low morphology (1.4 normal forms and 98.6 abnormal forms)

Until we have our fertility clinic appointment - what I'm most concerned about is whether we should keep trying? If his sperm is not forming properly, is there a chance that the baby will have chromosomal issues? I can't seem to find clear guidance online.

We had a miscarriage last year, so I'd rather pause trying to conceive if we could have a high risk of challenges. Equally, I'm just about to ovulate so not sure what to do!

I'd really appreciate any guidance you can offer from personal experience.

Thank you 💓

OP posts:
LavenderSweetPea · 24/08/2023 16:13

If it helps at all, in a 'normal' sperm sample, approximately 4-10% of sperm have normal morphology, so even a very fertile man will still have 90-96% of his sperm be abnormal morphology. If chromosonal abnormalities were caused by abnormal sperm morphology, genetic conditions would be a lot more common. All this to say, I don't see a problem with you continuing to try.

I think the main problem with abnormal sperm is not the risk of conditions your child could inherit, it's that weird shaped sperm physically can't get to/fertilise the egg. The less normal sperm you have, the less chance you have of fertilisation in the first place. I think it is unlikely that your DH's sperm morphology was inherintly the cause of your previous miscarriage, and if anything it is encouraging that you were able to conceive - sorry, having been through infertility myself I mean this in a '1.4% isn't as high as you might like but it's good enough to be worth trying' way. Nothing infuriated me more after over a year of trying, followed by an early loss to be told 'at least you know you can get pregnant' but there is a kernal of truth in it.

Please don't be disheartened, and if you do decide to keep trying best of luck!

SarahShorty · 24/08/2023 13:12

Hey, OP. It only takes one good sperm to reach the egg, so even if his numbers aren't very good, it's still worth it to keep trying, that's just my opinion. It's been 18 months for me trying and we're going to continue to try at least so we don't have any regrets or what-ifs.

Most embryos a couple produces are chromosomaly abnormal anyway, so if the embryo doesn't have the best genetics, it will likely stop growing and then your body will reject it. Morphology means the shape and form of the sperm, bad morphology would be sperm that doesn't present normally, ie two heads instead of one, a broken/malformed tail or something like immature sperm which is a sperm not fully-formed and has just a head with no tail. It's two-headed sperm that delivers two lots of DNA, ie one extra chromosome, which leads to Down's Syndrome.

TL;DR Embryos that humans make are mostly duff and I'd continue to carry on trying anyway so there are no regrets/what-ifs. Though, ultimately, it's up to you and your hubby.