Sperm morphology is one of the most important determinations and one of the critical parameters in determining a man's ability to fertilize. Sperm morphology evaluates the morphometric characteristics of the sperm head, midpiece and tail.
Normal spermatozoa have an oval head and a long tail. In contrast, abnormal sperm have defects in the head or tail, such as a large or misshapen head or a double or crooked tail.
There are not many known factors that can improve sperm morphology and thus increase the percentage of normal forms.
It has been seen that the time sperm spend stored in the epididymis can be a determining factor in seminal quality; low ejaculatory frequency has been related to increased exposure to the effects of oxidative stress.
The time of sexual abstinence is one of the clinical criteria taken into account during seminal analysis; the interval recommended by the WHO is 2 to 7 days. Some studies have shown that increased ejaculatory frequency has positive effects on different conventional semen parameters, including sperm morphology.
In Assisted Reproduction, when performing IVF, we can improve fertilization results in cases of alterations in sperm morphology with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). This technique makes it possible to select the spermatozoa at the time of fertilization also based on morphological criteria.
