Hello everyone, how are you all? I hope you all are doing well and i am too. Its been so many days that i am away from stemsocial because i am busy with hivechess and my personal works. From today onwards we are going to learn about semen analysis. What it is and its composition and why analysis of it required?in what way it will helps us.

Semen analysis is manily done for infertility cause.
First we will start how semen is formed and what things helps for formation of semen.
Semen also called seminal fluid is produced in the male genital tract in which the sperms or spermatozoa present in it which are capable for fertilizing ova.

Image source

Semen is only produced by males.
Sperms which are the most important things for life production are produced in the testes(in the seminiferous tubules). They are also called male gametes or spermatozoa. It constitutes about 2-5% of semen volume.

Maturation of sperms happens in epididymis. So the sperms which are produced in testes(in the seminiferous tubules) will travel and reach epididymis they will mature. Now comes the problem, what is maturation? maturation means these sperms which reached epididymis will stay there for 10-14 days where they gain ability to fertilize ova, gain motility and biochemical changes in the membrane. In epididymis along with maturation, there will be some production of potassium, sodium, and glycerylphosphorylcholine as they will act as energy source for sperms.

From epididymis it will travel through vas deferens and where there will be production of erogothioneine and fructose(nutrition for sperms)
Next during ejaculation,seminal vesicles and prostate glands secrete nutritive and lubricating fluids and they total make up about 90% of semen volume. Seminal vesicles secrete fructose which is nutrition for sperms and prostate glands will secrete fibrolysin along with other chemicals.
The semen which is passing through the urethra will get little amount of mucus from bulbourethral glands or cowper glands and the semen will come out of the penis.

How semen is collected?

The semen is collected in a empty, clean, sterile plastic container

The patient should write his name details and form to be filled properly.

by what method semen is collected?

Through Masturbation. There is a room which attached to lab and and there you have to collect semen in plastic container by masturbation completely.

What is abstinence?

It means the man should not ejaculate (no sexual intercourse or masturbation) for 3 to 7 days before giving the semen sample and optimal is 3-5 days. This is according to the WHO Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen (5th edition, 2010),

Semen specimen is collected after about 3 days of sexual
abstinence. Motility will be reduced if the abstinence is longer period and If the period of abstinence is shorter than 3
days then sperm count is lowered. So standard is 3-7 days(3-5 days is optimal)

Thats why history of the male is important whether he followed abstinence or not or else the total count and results will come abnormal.

Condom collection and ejaculation after coitus is avoided because the initial part of ejaculated semen will contains high amount of sperms which will be lost if we follow ejaculation after coitus.
The semen which is collected in plastic container should be equal to body temperature and should avoid freezing or carrying in cold boxes or high temperatures. The container with semen can be carried by keeping in pocket.

Within how much time it should be brought to lab?

With 1 hr after collection the semen needs to be brought to the lab. Why 1 hr is because 1st 30 mins the semen will be thick and viscous and it will get liquefy by the fibrolysin and it should liquefied before testing.

Why semen needs to be liquefied and why we should perform only after it gets liquefied?

The semen is thick and contains sperms. For semen analysis we have to check its motility, for this sperms should be freely mobile, to look for its morphology and its count we need liquefied semen. semen gets liquefied and its a normal process.

Physical examination should be done

Whenever we receive semen, we have to check details and cross check it and physical examination should be done. Its color,viscosity, volume and pH is noted
Coming to viscosity,Normal semen will become liquefied with 30 mins and sometimes within 60 mins. But its not getting liquefied within 60 mins means thats abnormal. So we can check it, by this method,
Take a pipette collect some amount of semen into it and slowly press the pipette and release semen if it falls drop by drop then it is liquefied. If its not falling drop by drop and If droplets form ‘threads’ more than 2 cm long, then viscosity is
increased. Increased viscosity will affects sperm motility and there will be poor penetration thats why we have to check viscosity

Liquefied semen- Drop by drop

Semen - Not liquefied - thread like

Hope you understand.This is just beginning and so much is there to learn in semen analysis. i will come with video and images in next post continuation of this so that you will get idea of it.

References

• WHO Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen (5th edition)
• Essentials of clinical Pathology,Shirish M Kawthalkar 2nd edition

Thanks for reading,
With regards,