Introduction

Infertility is generally defined as the inability to conceive after one year of regular, unprotected intercourse. It affects approximately 15% of couples, with 40% of those cases being due to male infertility.

According to the World Health Organisation, if a man’s sperm count is less than 20 million per ml, he may be considered infertile. However, it’s not all about quantity – if a man is producing large amounts of poor quality sperm he may still be considered infertile.

Sperm quality includes motility (how well the sperm are able to swim in a directed manner), morphology (the shape and structure of the sperm) and their ability to penetrate the cervical mucous and outer covering of the egg in order to achieve fertilisation.

A man will most likely be considered sterile if his sperm count is less that 500,000 per ml.