Couples battling infertility may go through a borage of tests to determine what their course of action should be. In the initial diagnostic phase, the male and female will be tested for infertility factors. Many couples have questions about the male diagnostic procedure and their semen analysis report.

Testing for male infertility includes a history evaluation, physical exam, hormone tests and a semen analysis. The semen analysis measures the volume of semen, sperm count, sperm motility and the number of normal shaped sperm. Many things can affect the results of the semen analysis. Your medical history, medications, birth defects and your environment can all affect your sperm quality.

If you receive a semen analysis and have questions about the results, talk to your infertility specialist. Keep in mind that semen analysis results can vary greatly from day to day, and if you receive an abnormal report, then your doctor will retest you within a week or two of the first analysis. Sperm can take about three months to fully form in your body. Illness, medication and environmental hazards that you were exposed to up to three months ago can affect your results. Retesting at varying time intervals helps your doctor properly diagnose semen abnormalities.

The semen analysis is conducted to determine if the sperm is capable of fertilizing a human egg. If you have been able to achieve pregnancy before, either naturally or by In Vitro Fertilization, then you have a good indication that the sperm will be able to fertilize an egg. If you've had a semen analysis, then you may have questions about the terminology used in the report and what the results really mean. Normal results can include a high number of abnormal sperm, a low number of viable sperm and other seemingly dismal results. Don't despair if your initial results look bad.

Sperm motility refers to the sperms ability to move through the seminal fluid. Movement and forward progression is necessary for the sperm to travel to the egg. This variable of the semen analysis will be expressed as a percentage of the total number of sperm that are mobile. There may also be a subcategory of sperm that has movement, but may have some limited mobility, no forward progression, or irregular movements.

Your semen analysis will also include a percentage of sperm that has a normal shape. This is referred to as morphology, and identifies the percentage of sperm that is most likely to have fertilization capabilities. A normally shaped sperm should have an oval head, defined midsection and a long tail. A sperm is considered abnormal if it has a large or pointed head, round head, two heads, no tail, double tail, and so on. Anything that doesn't strictly adhere to the norm will be considered abnormal in the morphology report. Numbers of abnormal sperm can be very high in an acceptable semen sample, so don't be discouraged if the percentage of normal sperm seems low. Talk with your infertility specialist about what percentage is considered acceptable.

Sperm concentration and sperm count are also evaluated for the report. There can be huge variations from one analysis to the next depending on when the sample was taken. Be patient and keep in mind that one semen analysis is not enough to determine the cause of your fertility problems. Don't try to interpret results on your own. A caring infertility specialist will discuss your results in depth with you and make sure that all of your questions are answered before you move on to treatment options.