| Where It's Done | Who Does It | How Long It Takes | Discomfort/Pain |
| Doctor's office, lab, or home. | You give a semen sample. | Varies--from 10-30 minutes. | None. |
| Results Ready When | Special Equipment | Risks/Complications | Average Cost |
| 1-10 days, depending on the number and complexity of tests performed. | Urine specimen cup. | None. | $$ |
Semen collection or sperm study.
PurposeTo determine a man's fertility or infertility based on a variety of laboratory tests on the semen specimen.
How it worksA semen specimen is submitted for laboratory analysis.
PreparationSome physicians recommend refraining from sexual activity for three days before the test.
Test procedure- Either at home or in a doctor's office or laboratory, the man is required to masturbate to ejaculation and collect the semen in a sterile plastic container, usually the same kind used for a urine sample.
- Obtaining the sample at the doctor's office or laboratory is more effective, ensuring a safe and fast delivery for analysis. Otherwise, the specimen must be delivered quickly to the doctor's office or laboratory and kept at room temperature and out of the light until delivery.
You are free to leave and resume normal activities immediately.
Factors affecting results- Improper collection procedure, especially affecting volume.
- Exposing semen to cold, heat, or strong light can destroy the sample.
Various counts and analyses are done on the semen sample. These may include the following:
- Volume: Amount of semen in a single ejaculation.
- Sperm concentration: Number of sperm present in semen.
- Viscosity: The stickiness or resistance to flow of the semen.
- Abnormal forms: Percentage of sperm that are asymmetrical, unusually large, oddly shaped, or have double heads or tails.
- Motility: Percentage of sperm that are moving (variously interpreted as twitching in place, spinning in circles, or moving in one direction).
- Migration: Percentage of sperm showing forward progression.
A low sperm count or volume may be the reason for infertility. (Other infertility tests include the mixed erythrocyte-spermatozoa antiglobulin reaction [MAR test]--see table 10.4.)
Advantages- It's noninvasive and inexpensive.
- It's a brief test that produces fast and reliable results.
You may be too embarrassed to masturbate and ejaculate in the doctor's office, and a sample from home may not be suitable for analysis because of exposure to heat or light.
The next stepTreatment, depending on the diagnosis.
When you masturbate for the test, do not use any lubricants, as these can kill sperm by attacking the sperm membranes.
The Patient's Guide to Medical Tests by Faculty Members at The Yale University of Medicine and G.S. Sharpe Communications, Inc. Copyright © 1997 by Yale University of Medicine and G.S. Sharpe Communications, Inc. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
