Getting SA results tomorrow, what to expect.

[Pipbin]

Well the title says it all really.
DH has had two tests and the doctor called saying to make an appointment; which is tomorrow.

What will we be told? What questions should we ask?

Try to get a printout of the results. Ours never seem to turn up at the appointments where they are needed unless I take them along myself.

The test looks at a number of factors such as volume, viscosity, motility, morphology, count per ml and a few other things. The print out should have the lab's normal ranges for each factor. The dr should probably talk you through it but ours never did. He just said it was normal and I went home and looked up on the web what it all meant.

If there is a problem you will probably want to ask Qs about further investigations, treatment, etc. And if there isn't, I guess you will want to know where you go from there (I'm not sure what stage you are currently at).

Thanks Euro. This is the first test we have had done hopefully it'll be OK.
I'm relieved to hear that you had an appointment even though everything was normal.

Hi pipbin

I second euro's advice about getting a printout. They always seem to disappear for some reason. I hope it goes well, let us know how you get on.

That's good advice to get a printout, you can always do your own research then.

Some doctors seem to tell you the very minimum, I know that fertility problems are what they deal with all day every day, but we are patients, and can't be expected to know what everything means, or what should be "normal" for a sperm analysis.

I normally write down any questions I want to ask beforehabd, and take it to the appointment with me to make sure I don't come away thinking "Bugger, didn't ask that", as they can be a huge wait for the next appointment sometimes.

Hope it all goes OK for you, I'm sure it will.

Thanks Pippi we are off in about 45 minutes. I'm very anxious now.

Hi Pipin I came on to wish you good luck. How did you get on?

Well ......... Count is huge. Loads of swimmers. However only 12% are strong swimmers when is should be 25%.
But then my thought is that it should be 25% when there is 20million. The sperm count is 180million so surely that should be actually more sperm per shot who are heading to the desired destination.
The doctor gave us a print out and suggested that I get tested too so I have an appointment tomorrow.

Wow that is huge! I must admit that I know very little about what it means if it's out of the normal range. Did your GP say if that could affect your chances of conceiving? Good luck with your tests tomorrow

That is huge! I bet your other half is strutting around now....

My consultants have looked at the strong swimmers and the other forward moving swimmers together and said that the two combined should be 50% and haven't worried too much about the breakdown between the two.

What are you being tested for tomorrow?

I think tomorrow is to get things in motion. As a rule the woman needs to be referred.
I doubt they are going to test.

LOL euro my DH was strutting when his came back as good!, Men, what are they like?!

Glad it went OK pip, hopefully any tests you need will be done quickly so things can progress quickly.

Wow, that is a good count! This is taken from Wikipedia
A man can have a total number of sperm far over the limit of 20 million sperm cells per milliliter, but still have bad quality because too few of them are motile. However, if the sperm count is very high, then a low motility (for example, less than 60%) might not matter, because the fraction might still be more than 8 million per millilitre. The other way around, a man can have a sperm count far less than 20 million sperm cells per millilitre and still have good motility, if more than 60% of those observed sperm cells show good forward movement.

You might need to do some maths to work out how many motile sperm there are per ml.

The count is 45million per ml and 180million in the whole sample.

The average count per ml is 20million.

So 25% of 20million is 5million (which is what grade A should be I believe)
12% of of 45 is 5.4 million.
Not so bad in my mind.

Anyway, I went to the doctor today and she gave me the forms etc for 'day21' and day 2 bloods (my day 21 is actually day 28) and I had to have swabs too, which I got there and then.
Day 28 is Monday so I can get that and the day 2 bloods done quite quickly.
All seems to be progressing well and they are taking us seriously.

Actually it seems the the WHO now say it needs to be a total of 32% that are going the right way, or 20 million per 'shot'.

The total % of grade a and b was 17%. However this is 30million out of 180 million. So better numbers wise than needed.

Hurrah.
Can you tell I specialised as a math teacher?

yay for you pip, glad it's progressing nicely! Now you need to get friendly with your consultant's sectretary, it always helps and can get you a quicker appointment!