Motility, vitality and percentages of morphologically abnormal forms of human spermatozoa in relation to sperm counts.

The present work was designed to study the proportions of motile and vital sperms as well as of various types of morphologically defective spermatozoa in both normozoospermic and oligozoospermic human semens, aiming at examining whether with the decrease in sperm counts there is a predilection of certain pathologies of these cells. It was found that, generally, the percentages of non-motile and non-vital spermatozoa and of all abnormal forms examined increase with the degree of oligozoospermia. However, no predilection of particular forms could be observed. It is suggested that morphological abnormalities of spermatozoa could be only a partial expression of pathological processes involved in fertility disorders and that the number of biologically defective spermatozoa may be higher than that assessed by routine laboratory techniques.