Confusing SA results

[unusualalias]

DH has just got his SA results back and whilst his count is high and motility is good too, the morphology result was only "7% normal". This seems to highlight a problem but the comment given by the consultant was "Overall a satisfactory result is likely". We kind of expected a bit more insight and advice from the clinic to be honest as we paid through the nose privately to get the test but that's all they had to say on the subject!

Is poor morphology as much of a problem as it sounds and is there anything that can be done to improve it? (Have been googling but just found loads of contradictory info) Any advice greatly appreciated. Ta v much.

Most labs use something called the kruger criteria. On that scale anything over 3% of normal forms is normal for morphology, so your husband is well within the normal range. Unfortunately all men produce a majority of rubbish sperm! But there are millions of them so a few % normal means enough to give you a fighting chance.

Thanks eurochick. Are there several scales used then? What got us worried was that on the results form that DH got from the clinic it had >15% as being the minimum of the normal range.
Good to hear we still have a fighting chance though. Not ready to give up just yet! (We've managed it once to get our DS but aren't having much luck with ttc no.2.)

Yes, there are different scales. As it was explained to me, the tests use to be done using criteria that meant that a measurement of 12 or 15 % normal forms or more was "normal". Then most labs adopted the kruger criteria, which use a stricter assessment of what is a normal form (so fewer swimmers "pass" - they have to look pretty much perfect) but then said that 3% was the pass mark.

I've learned about this because we got back one set of SA results which said something like "10% (normal range

ThunderboltKid - Congratulations! Good to hear these numbers aren't as bad as they seemed at first. DH is taking Wellman too so fx...

Eurochick - Ahhh I see what you mean - the scores all makes sense to me now. Amazing what you learn when ttc starts getting serious! To be honest DH is pretty healthy, doesn't smoke and rarely drinks. Will keep reminding him to take his vits and see what the next few months have in store for us.

It's definitely worth questioning your clinic on the results, but hopefully you have the same anomoly I did with the result being according to the Kruger criteria and the normal range being printed according to the older type of testing.

Even if they are using the old criteria and he is under the normal range, he still has plenty of good swimmers. It only takes one!