How IVF labs lie to patients by mis-reporting teratozoospermia ( abnormal sperm morphology) when doing a semen analysis

 A patient emailed me his semen analysis report for a second opinion. He was very upset because his doctor had told him that he had male factor infertility, based on this report, which showed a large number of abnormal sperm forms ( abnormal sperm morphology, the medical term for which is teratozoospermia ). He said that this was the reason for their infertility , and was advising them to go in for IVF/ICSI treatment immediately.

 I told him that this was quite clearly an unreliable semen analysis report from an unreliable lab. He was upset, because he said – But this is the leading IVF clinic in my town !

I told him that any lab which reports on sperm morphology so badly is clearly a bad lab !

 Many IVF labs have started taking patients for a ride by reporting a large number of abnormal forms , and thus pushing them into doing IVF/ICSI, and maximising their profits by artificially inflating their workload.

 This is because it is difficult , complicated and expensive to report sperm morphology correctly. The sperm need to be stained with a special stain, the technician has to carefully analyse the shape of at least 100 individual sperm before giving a final report .

Sadly, most IVF labs these days take shortcuts, and their technicians are being told to report all the semen analysis reports as having a large number of abnormal forms , so that the doctor can then advise their patients to do IVF/ICSI.

 If your semen analysis report says you have teratozoospermia , then insist that they provide you with the stained slide . If they don't do this , it means they have not bothered to check the sperm morphology properly , and you can't trust them . Please run away from that IVF clinic as fast as possible , and find an independent Pathology Laboratory , and repeat your semen analysis there,  because hopefully they don't have a vested interest in trying to cheat you by creating work for themselves .

If you want to see how sperm morphology is tested in a good lab, check out http://www.fertaid.com/fertaid/FertAid_ImageReview.asp?UR=4