Question about S.A levels

[babyloulou]

Hi everyone

This is a question I have been meaning to ask for a while but never got round to it.

When we got OH's S.A results we were told he had low motility. (the second time the doctor was talking about mobility instead- are these the same thing????) After his first test the Ob gyn said that his results were "7" for motility and that normal would be 15 and above. At his second test (after big lifestyle changes) his level was now 13. He still said though that this would mean needing ICSI- but it doesn't sound bad to me if it's now 13 and normal is 15????

Does anyone know what these numbers mean? Everyone else I have heard discussing SA always talks in percentages!

Thanks in advance girls

 

[jojoD]

Hi babyloulou,

Motility and mobilty are the same thing. Both are an assessment of how well a man’s sperm moves. Ideally, at least 50%, preferably more though, of a man’s sperm should be active.

Can't really help with your last question regarding your numbers. My dh's motility was measured by a percentage. Just guessing but maybe average is 15 million active, as a normal count is considered 20 million or above. So that would be 75% active. Maybe your oh now has 13 million active out of his overall count??

I wouldn't be afraid to ring and ask.

 

[babyloulou]

Thanks for your reply jojoD. Thanks- that makes a lot of sense how you explained it! Maybe that's how the numbers work- again though those results don't sound so bad to me! Who knows??

On the form the results possible were <5 or 6-10 or 11-15 or something like that. I asked him to explain it at the time but he said "not to worry about the numbers"

 

[looknomore]

Hi babyloulou,

Low motility is also divided into Grade a b and c where a is rapid movement, b is slow movement and c is sluggish. So normal is a+b which is the percentage that actually works and that has to be 50% atleast. But u have not mentioned the total count. Because if the total count is excellent then even if the motility is a bit low, it is compensated by a high number. Similarly if the count is low but the motility is high then also it is workable. the idea is to get enough number of sperms with rapid forward movement.

Has ur husband been advised any supplements/antioxidants cos they can help with motility. Hope this helps. xx

 

[babyloulou]

Thanks look no more. Yes in his first test there were "none moving rapidly at all and the overall movement was low" according to the Ob Gyn- the second test showed a lot of improvement in movement he said and that's when he said it was now "13" instead of the "7" that is was in the first test. Both times he said the overall count was absolutely fine and everything else was fine.