Semen quality in relation to semen preservation.

A goal of research in laboratory evaluation of semen has been ultimately to predict the fertility achievable with use of that semen. This would permit evaluation of the male and ejaculate. For artificial insemination, semen viability becomes a measure of man's interaction with that semen in an effort to preserve its functional life. Man's efficiency in developing successful methods of semen preservation are, therefore, contingent upon the relationship of tests of semen quality and fertility. Problems discussed are those associated with identification of the most appropriate tests of spermatozoan viability important to fertility. These problems reside predominantly in poor repeatability of many tests (objectivity versus subjectivity), the interaction of semen quality and quantity in the inseminate, the effect of latent cell injury encountered in some systems of preservation (example frozen semen), and identification of viability traits of spermatozoa important to their retention and transport in the female reproductive tract as well as their ability to fertilize the egg and sustain embryogenesis. A case is established for the use of more than one viability test or semen trait for evaluating systems of semen preservation.