ABSTRACT
The diagnosis of male factor infertility has been the corner stone of the work up for the infertile couple. It is a common practice to start the workup with semen analysis when the couples have their first visit to the specialist. In spite of the extensive research only a few tests have been used to diagnose male infertility. Basic semen analysis is perhaps the simplest but the most important one in clinical practice. However the lack of qualitative and quantitative calibration tools in basic semen analysis has made the test results vary from one lab to another. Several professional organizations including WHO have made an effort to standardize of basic semen analysis. Perhaps sperm morphology has been one of the most difficult to standardize in the last 15 years. The only parameter that has undergone a major change in the 5 years edition of the WHO lab manual has been the criteria for sperm morphology. The parameters of the basic semen analysis have been reviewed extensively by Coetze et al., and sperm morphology has been found to be the most valuable in predicting the outcome of in vitro fertilization.1 Therefore sperm morphology has been given special importance in deciding the prognosis of assisted conception of the couple.
