Okay so I got my hands on DH's counts today. He had his varicocile surgery in March. This test is completely different than the last one that was run so someone please translate. We won't be able to get in until 6/30 and I need translation.

Volume: 2.0 ml
Color: grey
Liquification: 30 minutes

Viscosity: Moderate Stringy

Sperm Concentration: 11.9% (>10 mil/ml)
Total Concentration: 23.76% (>20 mill/ml)
Motility: 68.70 % (50% or more)

Forward Progression:
45.0% Rapid
40.0% moderate
10.0% Sluggish
5.0% Non-progressive

Round Cells: <5 (Normal <5 million/ml)
Leukocytes <1 (normal <1)

Strict Criteria Normal Range=5% or greater
1.0% normal
99.0% abnormal
70.0% Head Defects (yes, I know this sucks BIG-but what does it mean?)
22.0% tail Defects (again this sucks-what does it mean?)
6.5% Neck and Midpeice Defects
0.0% Cylophemic Droplets


So what does this mean if the heads are all messed up? I am freaking out???!!!!

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Well, the good news is that everything except those two looks pretty darn good. The fact that his morphology is a bit of a mess could still be due to the varicocele. I would talk to the RE about it, definitely.

Normally, I would recommend to start DH on FertilAid because sometimes fertility-based multivitamins can help with the morphology of sperm, but the fact that he had a vericocele operated on already is kind of concerning. I'm not sure the vitamins would help if there is something else at fault.

I wouldn't worry too much though. If it has to do with the varicocele then at least they will have a good direction as to where to go from here. It would suck if DH had to go through another surgery though. Do you have his SA from last time to compare to?

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Your report is different than any I've seen... I'm not sure about the shapes though, sorry I'm not much help... Hopefully someone else will be able to tell you more.... If I'm understanding correctly, it looks like his count and motility is good! I'm keeping my finger crossed for you!

Okay, your counts are still low, and the morphology is quite low. Your motility is excellent, but with that high a percentage of head defects, it may be difficult for the sperm to fertilize your eggs.

Here is the good news - first, how long since the varicocele surgery? The numbers should continue to go up, and if it has been less than 3 months, the morphology issue could be leftover from pre-varicocele time.

Second, if your DH takes Vitamin C and pycnogenol everyday for the next several months, you should be able to improve the morphology, too.

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Is it still low considering his other counts were

1/22 5 million per ml
2/14 3 million per ml

This is a whole other test than what we had last time. Much more indepth.

From what I understand it really doesn't matter what his motility is if the heads aren't strong enough to penetrate the egg. I swear, if it isn't one thing it's another.

His surgery was 3/2.
This was supposed to fix the problem. Right.

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Yes - the counts are improving, and the low end of normal is 20 million/ml, with at least 40 million sperm total seen as normal (2 ml @ 20 million each). My DH had between 34-78 million/ml each s/a, and that is still considered at the "lower" end of normal.

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