Sperm Motility
Men’s Health Blogs Sperm Motility Hi, This is Dr. Shah, Consultant in Male Infertility & Sexual Health. In this post, I am going to tell you everything about sperm motility But, first, let us understand a little about normal sperm motility. What is normal sperm motility? Did you know, that the normal sperm motility as stated by the WHO 2010 Andrology Laboratory Guideline values is 40%. Most men fear they will never father a child when their semen analysis or sperm test report shows a sperm motility range less than 40%. This cannot be farther from the truth! Here is a saying I absolutely love, take a look below… In my long years of clinical experience as an Andrologist, I have seen over 286 men who had extremely low sperm motility, in the range of 10 to 20%. All these men were told to go in IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) because the professionals who treated them believed that getting pregnant with low sperm motility is not possible. I advised each and every one of them the exact opposite of what they were told. Yes, I agree they all suffered from poor sperm motility, but, that does not ever mean that it is not possible to improve it. With the right treatment and medications, we were able to increase sperm motility naturally for each and every one of them. Now here comes the bigger truth, Remember, I told you the WHO 2010 manual recommends a sperm motility index of 40 %? This value came from a study performed on over 3000 fertile fathers who were able to get their partners pregnant in the 1st year of marriage. The WHO study assessed data only from European men who gave a semen test. It chose to ignore India and China The big joke is how can you extend an apply sperm motility data from one geography or study population to another population of Indian men?? It’s like telling the apples and oranges are the same!…Read on…. the interesting stuff has not even begun… The sperm analysis or semen test data that we use to assess Male infertility is not even based on study findings from our Indian population!. The WHO did not include Indian men when doing their study. They simply said that the 40% normal sperm motile range as prescribed is for reference purpose only! and that every clinic or lab should come to a conclusion based on their own data and metrics! Thus, that is exactly why I strongly believe that with the right treatment it is possible to improve sperm progressive motility Okay now bearing this in mind.. let’s discuss on our second topic Dr. Shah Dupesh Consultant Andrologist & Sexologist Ready to improve your Reproductive Health? Discuss your concerns in a private setting and get personalized guidance tailored to your needs. Book a Call Book a Call What is the normal sperm motility for pregnancy? So how much motility is required for pregnancy?.. Well to be honest, all you need is one sperm to fertilize that egg at the right time. But truth be told, not all men are lucky enough for such a scenario. If that was the truth why would there be male infertility issues in the first place? In my clinical experience, what the lowest sperm motile range below which pregnancy chances seriously fall, is about 2% to 5%. Again the statement I make here is highly relative. In all my years, I was able to treat only one patient who had severely low sperm motility in the range of 1 to 5%. However, this patient also conceived naturally without any aggressive fertility based therapies. All said and done, for Indian men, motile sperm percentage of 35% or above is good for pregnancy. This is especially true, when his sperm count, shape, and semen volume is normal!. Because we have no other options, we try to use the WHO 2010 reference values. We do not swear by it, In all our treatments for male infertility, it is a combination of our data and clinical experience that help us make the right decision for each couple. There is and always be will chance of pregnancy with low sperm motility least for a few couples. But we cannot directly predict for whom pregnancies will happen. Thus to conclude this section, you must understand that there is strictly no normal sperm motility for pregnancy. For all practical purposes, we recommend a range of 30 to 40% sperm motility as normal Now let us further our understanding, about spermatozoa and its motility Sperm motility can be broadly classified as follows Sperm that are progressively motile. Sperms that are non progressively motile. Sperms that are immotile. We will discuss the significance of each type – Sperm progressive motility : A sperm is said to be a progressively motile sperm if it moves linearly from one field to the next. This kind of movement is called progressive in nature. What this in principle means is that, the sperm is able to move from one place to another place. Both the number of sperms (sperm count) and the total number of progressively moving sperm in the semen play a key role in pregnancy. The concept should be fairly easy to understand, remember only sperm that are able to move can reach and fertilize the egg!. While a lot of fuss was initially made about the speed of sperm movement, we now know for a fact that speed of sperm movement is not or no longer a clinically useful tool to predict pregnancy. As long as you have at least over 32% of progressively motile sperm in the ejaculate, things should turn out normal. However, do remember that even if you have sperm progressive motility lesser than 32%, pregnancy is still possible. It is only at very low values of 2 to 5% were the chances of pregnancy become less. Have a quick look at the image below to understand progressive sperm motility Sperm non-progressive motility : Okay, now let’s discuss sperm non-progressive motility. A sperm is said to have non-progressive sperm motility if it moves in circles, or if it simply vibrates around a