A weakness in sperm quality can and does affect the sperms effectiveness to penetrate the egg and fertilise it. Sperm quality is something men take for granted. However this is not a good idea especially as we are experiencing a time where more and more sperm donors are needed in order to father children.

Recent discoveries have shown that sperm actually begins to decline in quality after the male reaches twenty-five years of age. Any deterioration can have an adverse effect on the sperms ability to penetrate the egg and therefore for conception. It is vitally important then for males who wish to father children to look after their sperm if they do not wish to have to resort to sperm donors help.

Sperm quality is made up of four different factors; speed, concentration or count, sperm activity known as motility and lastly morphology better understood as size and shape. To have excellent sperm quality a man has to have perfect scores in all of these areas. A weakness in any area can affect any chance of his sperm being strong enough to do the work required for conception.

Motility of sperm describes its ability to be active, in other words its swimming ability. It is very important that sperm is strong and that it has good motility as it needs to be strong enough to go on its journey and travel through the cervix, uterus and fallopian tubes and then have enough strength left in order to penetrate the eggs membrane and fertilise the egg itself.

As sperm moves forward this progressive motility takes it closer to its end destination. A healthy male has at least twenty-five percent progressive motility. If it does not then the chances of it fertilising an egg is slim. A sperms speed and therefore success is not just down to its length of tail, but is rather down to the ratio of head to tail.

The amount of sperm cells contained within one millilitre of semen is termed sperm concentration. The weaker the concentration the less sperm there will be trying to fertilise the eggs and so the longer conception can take. Normal sperm counts for healthy males are around fifteen to twenty million sperm cells per one millilitre of semen.

The actual size and shape of sperm is called morphology. Sperm should be shaped like a tadpole; with an oval head and long tail. The head contains the genetic material which will be passed on in the fertilising of the egg and the tail helps power the sperm onwards towards the egg. Sperm which is of an abnormal shape and or size is thought not to be able to fertilise eggs successfully.

Obviously as in any test of quality, there are always those that under or over achieve. Therefore excellent passing of all four sperm conditions could still leave a man unable to father children just as abnormal results in any one area could still leave the male able to father his own children without needed to resort to sperm donation.

Author Bio: This article is contributed by Alison Pullen from the ConceptionDirect Publishing Team. She works together with founder Nigel and writes fertility and relationship articles. You can find more about Healthy Sperm and Sperm Donation by visiting ConceptionDirect at their website.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: sperm donors,sperm quality,healthy sperm