Today is a very professional issue, but perhaps because it is very professional, there are many people who do not understand the problem of semen liquefaction and do not know that it can have a greater impact on fertility. Some people even misunderstood the problem of semen liquefaction and misinterpreted it as “irresponsibility” on the part of the hospital staff, which almost caused a “joke”. Zhang Wenwei, Reproductive Health Department, Shaoxing Maternal and Child Health Hospital
The other day, a patient came to me for infertility, I gave him a routine examination of semen, and after he took the sperm, I asked him to send it to the laboratory and asked him to wait there, I told him that the results would be ready in about an hour. So, he waited at the laboratory window for more than an hour and saw that the people who had their semen tested later than him had taken their reports one by one and left, but he did not see the examiner give him the report, so he thought that the examiner had forgotten his semen specimen. But he was too embarrassed to ask the examiner, so he came to my office in a huff and asked me to check it out for him.
Of course I didn’t believe that the examiner would forget his semen examination, and explained to him that it might be a problem of poor liquefaction of his semen, but he still asked me to check it out for him. As soon as his semen liquefies, he will be examined.
When the patient saw that his semen was indeed on the lab table and was still very sticky, he knew that he had misunderstood the examiner and was a little embarrassed.
The misunderstanding was cleared up, but the patient still didn’t understand why his clear fluid was different from others. Why was his semen not liquefied? What is the effect of non-liquefaction on fertility? How should the treatment of non-liquefaction be carried out? And so on.
In fact, this is by no means a patient’s incomprehension, but he just had a misunderstanding that made me remember it better. I can say that most of the infertility patients who come to the clinic do not understand some general knowledge about their own semen and the process of coagulation and liquefaction of semen, so in this article, I want to tell readers about the knowledge of semen liquefaction.
Semen originally exists in the reproductive tract in a liquid state, which I interpret as a substance like water with good fluidity. However, when semen is ejaculated from the mouth of the penis, it immediately turns into jelly-like or clot-like milky white or talk-yellow substance, which I interpret as glue-like substance-like, and at this time sperm contained inside the semen cannot swim freely, just as a tadpole cannot swim flexibly when put into a pot of glue. Normally, after 5-30 minutes, semen liquefies automatically under the action of specific enzymes, turning the gel into a thin, flowing liquid, that is, the glue becomes water. This liquid-agglutination-a-liquefaction process is all an enzyme-catalyzed process.
One may ask what is the meaning of the liquid-agglutination-liquefaction process of semen. In my opinion, this is a very meaningful thing, and I believe you have to admire the creation of nature, the original, the beginning of the liquid state is to facilitate the ejection of semen, because the resistance of liquid and colloid is different, the former is much smaller; after the ejection of the formation of clots is conducive to the semen in the vagina for a longer period of time, and make the sperm get sufficient rest and energy, but also make the sperm from the alkaline environment to the acidic environment of the vagina Once the semen is liquefied, the sperm will have enough energy to penetrate the cervical mucus and continue to push deeper into the reproductive tract, eventually reaching the fallopian tubes and uniting with the egg.
So, since the process of semen liquidity, coagulation and liquefaction is a natural phenomenon that accompanies human evolution, why do some people have semen that is not liquefied? In addition, unless the patient is a knowledgeable and attentive person, no one would normally know if he or she is not liquefying semen because there is no discomfort in the semen itself. What are the main causes of semen non-liquefaction? It is undoubtedly due to inflammation of the prostate or seminal vesicle glands. The lack or destruction of protein hydrolase secretion due to inflammation causes dysregulation of the enzyme system, making the patient’s semen not liquefy even if it is left for one hour, or incomplete liquefaction and too high viscosity. This is called semen non-liquefaction and is a pathological phenomenon. In this case, the sperm cannot move, which naturally causes infertility. As you can see, diseases of the seminal vesicles and prostate gland are important causes of non-liquefaction.
The diagnosis of semen non-liquefaction is easy and can be evaluated completely at home by yourself. You can take out the semen and place it in a container and leave it for observation to see how much time it will take for the semen to turn into a water-like thin book. If it is a thin book in about 30 minutes, it is considered normal, and if it is still sticky after more than an hour, it is poorly liquefied.
If it is clear that the semen is not liquefied, it can be treated under the guidance of a doctor. Of course, the principle of treatment is anti-inflammation and supplementation of liquefaction enzymes, and the means of treatment is a combination of Chinese and Western medicine.