To understand the implication of teratozoospermia in reproduction, it is necessary to understand what it is and in what forms it can appear.
Teratozoospermia is an alteration in sperm morphology. However, it is important to know that most of the spermatozoa generated by a male have an altered morphology, in such a way that a seminogram with a percentage of spermatozoa greater than or equal to four percent is considered normal with respect to this parameter. In other words, if 96 percent of the spermatozoa in an ejaculate have an altered morphology, this is perfectly normal.
It is necessary to understand this concept, because sometimes there are health professionals who do not know how to correctly interpret a semen analysis and when they observe a high percentage of altered spermatozoa, they can scare couples, saying that they have a seminal alteration that they really do not have.
With respect to the morphology of the spermatozoa, the shape of any of its parts can be altered and the implication of this alteration is different in the reproductive process:
- If the head or midpiece is altered: the spermatozoa will have greater difficulty fertilizing the oocyte. This is what happens in globozoospermia in which the great majority of the spermatozoa have a rounded head, lack acrosome and present defects in the midpiece, which prevents them from penetrating the zona pellucida of the oocyte.
- If the morphology of the tail is altered: the sperm will have greater problems to advance towards the ovum and thus be able to fertilize it.
In addition, it is known that whether they are alterations of one or another part of the spermatozoa, when a large number of these have morphological alterations (0%-1%), they can present a greater number of genetic alterations, which will determine a worse reproductive prognosis.
Sperm microinjection helps the spermatozoa to reach the oocyte and fertilize it, although also in this case spermatozoa without morphological alterations are used if possible.
Even so, it cannot be affirmed that a male with teratozoospermia cannot give rise to an evolving gestation, not even in the most serious cases, such as globozoospermia. What is certain is that this alteration will make it more difficult to achieve it.
