Before preparing for childbirth, I think every male friend is more or less worried about the quality of his sperm. Will it affect pregnancy? Well, the most important and easiest test of all is of course the semen routine. Next, let’s find out whether your semen routine is qualified or not! 1. Composition of semen Semen consists of sperm and seminal plasma, of which sperm accounts for 10% and the rest is seminal plasma. Spermatozoa are produced by the testes, and seminal plasma is produced by the prostate, seminal vesicle and urethral bulb glands. According to the fifth edition of the WHO Laboratory Test Manual for Human Semen and Sperm-Cervical Mucus Interaction issued in 2010, the “normal semen standards” are as follows: (1) Liquefaction time: within 60 minutes at room temperature, usually no more than 15 minutes. If semen does not liquefy after 1 hour, it may be due to inflammation that destroys fibrinolytic enzymes, such as prostatitis, and sperm non-liquefaction can inhibit sperm motility and affect conception. (2) Appearance: Semen is off-white, translucent and milky white after liquefying on its own, semi-fluid, and slightly light yellow for those who have not ejaculated for a long time. Where the semen is bright red, light red, dark red or soy sauce color and contains a large number of red blood cells is called hematosperm, may be due to vesiculitis, prostatitis and genitourinary tuberculosis, tumors or stones; yellow pus-like semen is seen in prostatitis and vesiculitis. (3) Semen volume: 1.5ml or more. A normal male with fertility has an ejaculation volume of 2-6 ml, with an average of 3.5 ml. An ejaculation volume is negatively correlated with the frequency of ejaculation. If the subject has not ejaculated for 3 days and the volume of one ejaculation is still less than 1.5ML, it should be regarded as abnormal and may be caused by retrograde ejaculation, low androgen secretion by the testes and dysfunction of the accessory glands; if there is no ejaculation, it is called azoospermia. (4) pH: Normal semen is weakly alkaline and the pH should be between 7.2-8.0 to facilitate neutralization of acidic vaginal secretions. When pH > 8.0, it is possible that there is acute infectious disease in the accessory glands or epididymis, while in chronic infectious disease, the pH may be 7.2 or < 7.2. pH less than 7.2 or more than 8 can affect the activity and metabolism of sperm, which is not conducive to conception. (5) Total sperm count: the number of sperm cells produced per ejaculation, normally not less than 39*10^6 per ejaculation, and the sperm survival rate should be above 58%, the percentage of normal form sperm above 4%, and the total number of deformed sperm should be below 10%. (6) Sperm density: that is, the number of sperm cells contained in each ml of semen, normal 15*10^6/ml or more. Sperm with motility should account for more than 60% of the total. (7) Sperm motility assessment: According to the motility of sperm, it is mainly classified into four grades: a, b, c and d according to the WTO standards. Class a represents fast forward-moving sperm Class b represents slow or dull forward-moving sperm Class c represents non-forward-moving sperm Class d represents immobile sperm The diagnostic criteria for oligozoospermia: total sperm count (or concentration), percentage of forward-moving sperm (class a+b) and less than 39*10^6/ ml (15*10^6/ ml) and 32%, respectively. Common causes of reduced sperm motility and viability include inflammation of the paraphilic glands, varicocele, the presence of anti-sperm antibodies in semen or improper storage of specimens. Diagnostic criteria for deformed spermatozoa: 4% or less of normal form sperm. (8) Leukocytes: normal semen should have less than one "+" sign in the leukocytes. An increase in leukocytes indicates the presence of infection in the reproductive tract or paraphilic glands. If the result of the first semen analysis is normal, a second analysis is usually not required. If the result of the second semen analysis differs significantly from the first, a third semen analysis is required. The diagnosis of azoospermia should be made with special care, with at least three rigorous semen collections and examinations, and all semen standards for which no sperm are seen on microscopic examination should be centrifuged to determine the absence of sperm in the sediment.