Sperm Motility (1)

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Sperm Motility
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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.

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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.
• 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.

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Sperm progressive motility Sperm
non-progressive motility

• 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.
• Sperm non-progressive motility
• Okay, now lets 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 set point. Non
  progressively motile sperm may become
  progressively motile over a later period of time.
  But we do not know to what extent this phenomenon
  occurs.
• Hence for all practical purposes, the total sperm
  motility in a given sample sperm progressive
  non-progressive motility. Total sperm motility
  gives us a good sign of the total number alive
  sperms in the semen.

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Immotile sperm

• Immotile sperm as you can clearly understand from
  our very definition, simply means that the sperms
  are not moving or mobile.
• A very important distinction has to be made here
  though, just because a sperm is not moving, it
  does not mean it is dead!!!. When a semen
  analysis report shows a higher range of immotile
  sperm, most people think or tend to assume that
  the sperms are all DEAD.
• But that is absolutely not true!. Which is
  exactly why in a semen analysis report we have a
  separate section to assess sperm vitality.
• All said and done, immotile sperm do not
  contribute to the chances of achieving a
  pregnancy. Having over 80 of immotile sperm in
  the semen is definitely strongly associated with
  male infertility.
• Also interestingly, some men suffer from sperm
  flagellar defects, this also results in immotile
  sperm.

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The causes of immotile sperm are summarized below

1. Oxidative stress from poor lifestyle habits can
   result in immotile sperms
2. Smoking and excess alcohol consumption can lead
   to immotile sperms
3. Hormonal deficiencies can lead poor sperm count
   and immotile sperm
4. Sperm tail defects can also be genetically
   inherited can also lead to immotile sperms
5. Cystic fibrosis is a genetically inherited
   condition is also associate with immotile sperm
6. Kartageners syndrome is also associated with
   immotile sperm
7. Sexually transmitted infection can also increase
   the percentage of immotile sperm
8. Excess heat exposure can also increase the
   proportion of immotile sperms
9. Numerous other sperm production problems due to
   genetic mutations in the Y-chromosome can also
   lead to sperm immotility with extremely low sperm
   counts.

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How to increase sperm motility?

1. Exercise, exercise and keep exercising to improve
   sperm motility
2. Eat lots of Antioxidant-rich fruits and
   vegetables
3. Take the prescribed antioxidants from the right
   male infertility specialist
4. Avoid carrying your cell phone in your pant pocket

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Learn more about Sperm Motility?

• Visit our website at http//www.andrologycorner.co
  m/sperm-motility/