THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SPERM MORPHOLOGY AND MOTILITY IN FERTILE AND INFERTILE MEN

The swim-up procedure was used to collect a sperm fraction with improved motility and normal morphology from fertile and infertile semen samples. The untreated and swim-up fractions were analyzed with the Hamilton-Thorn Motility Analyser. Comparisons were made to see the effect of this sperm selection technique on sperm motility and morphology. They were then examined by transmission electron microscopy and the various sperm morphologies were recorded. Fertile and infertile samples were compared for differences in these parameters. There were no significant differences between fertile and infertile samples in the frequencies of various sperm morphologies in the untreated and swim-up fractions. There was a trend towards fertile samples having a higher motility of the untreated ejaculate, as well as more normal heads and tails and fewer morphological abnormalities than infertile samples. Sperm motility was found to be affected by sperm morphology, with an increase in normal sperm morphology resulting in an increase in motility. Normal sperm tail morphology appears to be the most important factor in motility, since this was the only morphology to show a significant increase in the swim-up fractions in all semen samples. Head morphology is less important to motility, but it is thought to play a major role in fertilization of the egg.