When a man has an abnormal semen analysis in which the parameters for sperm concentration, motility, and morphology fall outside the reference ranges, the chances of achieving a natural pregnancy or one through simple assisted reproductive technologies are very low.
In these cases—where there are few sperm, limited motility, and abnormal sperm morphology—the assisted reproductive technology with the highest chance of success is ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection). This technique allows embryologists to select sperm and inject them directly into the eggs. As a result, only as many sperm are needed as there are eggs to be fertilized.
In contrast, artificial insemination is not possible in cases of oligoastenoteratozoospermia, since the sperm would need to travel and fertilize the egg on their own.
