ABSTRACT
The liberal approach methodology has been adopted by the two earliest WHO manuals of 1980 (20) and 1987 (21). In the first WHO manual of 1980 (20), very little attention was given for the description of the methodology for sperm morphology evaluation and criteria for sperm normality, except for some legends to the color plates. It was also stated that the classification of the germinal cells were based on the proposals by MacLeod, thus following the liberal approach. In the second WHO manual of 1987 (21) the same approach was followed although some more detail on sperm morphology evaluation was given. In both manuals it is stated that in case of spermatozoa with borderline morphology the spermatozoa must be classified as normal.
