Any solid info on "low" morph?

ToastyToes · January 2011

Hi, all - Newbie here looking for some expertise!

DH and I have been TTC for a 6 months. We were referred to an RE because I was having two-week "cycles" without ovulating. My blood work and HSG were normal.

DH has had two SA, both of which showed "low" morphology (17% and 20%). I'm so confused about this because my OB ordered the SA and her triage nurse called with the results both times and wouldn't share much information. She just said, "He's low on shape and you'll need to go in to see the RE." I've looked everywhere and find conflicting information about morph: hurdles of 30% vs. 14% vs. 4%. Is 17% or 20% really low?

In the meantime, I started O'ing regularly and am in the middle of my second cycle. We went whole hog this time - OPK, PreSeed, and BD every day during the 3 that I had +OPK. I think I O'ed last night or this morning (spike in BBT and -OPK), and I'm so, so hopeful that we may get lucky this month... I just don't know if it's foolish to hope if DH's SA is actually low.

Anyone have experience with this? Advice? Good sources of information? Anyone conceive naturally with low morph? Should I hope or start preparing for my RE visit in Feb.? Thanks!

blueberries8 · January 2011

I hope this helps:

https://infertilityblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/sperm-morphology-mythology.html

https://infertilityblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/sperm-morphology-new-guidelines.html

I also think it will definitely be helpful to talk over all of your results with the RE. Good luck to you this cycle!?

99luftballoons · January 2011

Definitely check out the blog that Blue posted, it's really fantastic and will give you a lot of good info. I'd ask to see the actual SA results myself and speak to the RE about it instead of the nurse. My SA actually showed what the normal ranges are supposed to be, so when I first saw it I had that info to see what was low.

I don't know what criteria they used to measure the morph, but either way I think 17% or 20% are both FANTASTIC morph numbers. It is possible that your OB (or rather, the nurse) doesn't have any idea about the new criteria or how to read the results. This really isn't your OB's area of expertise, so they really shouldn't be interpreting results for you without speaking to the lab that did the SA. The nurse definitely shouldn't be.

My guess is that morph isn't your issue, not with those numbers. But to answer your questions, there are a lot of women who have gotten pregnant naturally with low morph numbers, especially when the rest of his numbers are good. Naturally didn't work for us, so we are doing unmedicated IUIs, but my doctors suspect that morph is not what is stopping us from getting pregnant, it's low volume. GL to you!

Ms.Jade · January 2011

I don't have "solid" info for you but I wanted to pipe in and say we were given the green light by a urologist for 7% morph and we got pregnant in the fall. Unfortunately we had a chemical pregnancy, but I wanted you to know that our urologist didn't think 7% was a problem and it hasn't been.

sbrowns08 · January 2011

My RE said anything above 4% is normal.

ToastyToes · February 2011

Thanks, Ladies!

We finally had a consultation with our RE and he covered all of our tests with us. He said DH's SA results were great. He explained the changing standards in morph and said he doesn't even look at them anymore because it's all so subjective.

Turns out we're dealing with PCOS, not MF at all!

Want a personalized experience?

Any solid info on "low" morph?

Re: Any solid info on &quot;low&quot; morph?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Want a personalized experience?

Any solid info on &quot;low&quot; morph?

Re: Any solid info on &amp;quot;low&amp;quot; morph?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Any solid info on "low" morph?

Re: Any solid info on "low" morph?