Semen analysis is supposed to be a simple, affordable test. Sadly, in real life, it is often performed extremely badly.
At local labs, the problem is usually poor training. The technician may not understand how to perform the test correctly. He may use outdated equipment, take shortcuts, or follow no quality-control protocol at all.
But the bigger tragedy is that semen analysis reports from many IVF labs are often unreliable and untrustworthy.
In many corporate IVF chains, the lab is not always incentivised to provide accurate, objective data. Instead, the report can become a marketing tool to push patients toward IVF treatment — even when they may not actually need IVF.
The most common abuse is the diagnosis of teratozoospermia, which means abnormal sperm shape.
Properly assessing sperm morphology is not a casual glance under the microscope. The sperm must be immobilised, stained, and carefully examined. A trained technician needs to assess at least 100 sperm before declaring that normal forms are below 4%.
This takes time, skill, documentation, and quality control.
The shortcut? Simply mark most samples as having less than 4% normal forms, without showing any proof — no stained-slide images, no documentation, no audit trail.
This allows the lab to report whatever it wants, because the patient has no way of knowing whether the test was actually done correctly.
As a result, “male factor infertility due to teratozoospermia” is becoming an epidemic — not because men have suddenly developed defective sperm, but because many are being misdiagnosed by poor or biased lab reporting.
Patients naturally trust IVF lab reports because they assume a specialised fertility lab must be accurate. Sadly, this trust is often exploited.
A faulty semen analysis can label a perfectly treatable couple as needing IVF. And once fear enters the room, rational decision-making quietly leaves.
The solution is simple: patients must demand evidence.
Ask for:
- Images of the stained sperm morphology slide
- The number of sperm actually examined
- The lab’s quality-control protocol
- Whether the morphology was assessed by a trained andrologist
- A repeat test from an independent, reliable lab before accepting the diagnosis
A semen analysis should guide treatment — not be used as a sales weapon.
Because when a bad report pushes a couple into unnecessary IVF, the real abnormality is not in the sperm. It is in the system.
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