What is teratozoospermia and how does it affect conception?

If a married couple cannot conceive a child, most often “suspicions” fall on the woman. But male infertility in recent years has become quite widespread, and the forms of this disease are diverse and many-sided. Today we will tell about one of them - teratozoospermia.

Teratozoospermia is a pathological change in the composition of the ejaculate. It is possible to determine the disease only by spermogram, while there may be no complaints about the state of health of the man. Teratozoospermia is the number of morphologically defective germ cells in the semen. The sperm morphology is a complex that describes what an ideal male reproductive cell should be.

The length and size of the sperm head, the thickness of the neck, the length and shape of the tail are estimated. Normally, every healthy man in the ejaculate has “crippled” cells: with no tail or tail twisted into a spiral or arc, with a small or deformed head, with two tails or two heads, as well as with other “deformities”. But teratozoospermia is spoken of only if the number of such “defective” cells exceeds 50% of the total number of cells in the seminal fluid.

In the people, this ailment is called "the disease of the ugly sperm." Most often, it will be learned in the course of surveys related to the impossibility of getting pregnant.

As already mentioned, the sperm during the semen undergo a hard selection. Therefore, the identified anomalies and combinations of these anomalies form an individual clinical picture - every man with such a diagnosis has different forms of violations. What are pathological sperm cells?

• Abnormal heads: small or very large sperm heads, double, deformed, with vacuoles. These violations are considered one of the most adverse, in terms of consequences for a woman and a child, but the ability to fertilize is preserved if the tail is not damaged.

• Abnormal cervical sperm: thick or thin necks, twisted necks. This is the most favorable form of the disorder, which is well treatable, after which the couple can become pregnant without the intervention of reproductive technologies.

• Abnormal tails: double, shorter, thicker, twisted, total absence of a tail. Such cells cannot move normally to reach the egg. Most often, with such a pathology of conception does not occur at all.

There are a lot of reasons why a man can develop teratozoospermia. Sometimes doctors still fail to establish the true cause - then they talk about idiopathic illness. The most common reasons why sperm cells become "ugly" are most often rooted in infectious diseases of the urogenital system.

The venereal diseases, transferred by a man, and especially those that remained unnoticed for a long time, can cause mutations of germ cells. Often sperm loses normal morphological properties due to varicocele - varicose veins of the scrotum.

Teratozoospermia can be inherited by the son from the father, and also appear after the received radiation exposure. A special place among the reasons given to bad habits. Alcohol, nicotine, narcotic and psychotropic substances with systematic use cause persistent damage to the morphology of male germ cells: the code that is carried by spermatozoa changes at the genetic level. These men have higher risks of conceiving a sick child.

Often teratozoospermia is found in men who work in hazardous industries that have contact with aniline dyes, heavy metal salts. Most often, the pathology is detected in the representatives of the stronger sex, who live in unfavorable, from an environmental point of view, regions and localities.

The cause of the violation of morphological forms of sperm can be a tumor, a viral disease, hidden infections (chlamydia, mycoplasmosis). Among the viruses for a man, the herpes viruses are the most dangerous, and not all, but the second type of viruses that cause genital herpes.

Often, quite healthy and reproductively capable men "destroy" themselves, probably, out of banal ignorance. So, lovers often go to the bath and sauna, or constantly turn on the seat heating in a car in the winter, the risk of teratozoospermia increases tenfold.

Recently, reproductologists and urologists are often approached by sportsmen with beautifully pumped bodies who are bursting with health. The morphological properties of their spermatozoa are disturbed by hormonal preparations, for example, anabolic steroids, which are widely distributed in fitness and sport to achieve the best body reliefs.

Of course, nutrition cannot affect a man. If he eats fast food or snacks on a raid, then with a high degree of probability he gets a lot of preservatives and dyes from food, which also cause "deformities" and mutations of germ cells.

On the question of whether it is possible to conceive a child, if a man has teratozoospermia, the answer is unequivocal, alas, no. Theoretically this is possible, and some couples manage to get pregnant, bear and give birth to a normal child. It all depends on how much abnormal sperm is present in the ejaculate. If their 80%, the chances of conception are estimated at about 20%, if more, then the chances are rapidly reduced.

Specialists to assess the fertility of men with teratozoospermia use a special term - the index of teratozoospermia (ITZ). If the conclusion states that the index is equal to one, then this means that in the germ cells an average of one anomaly is found (the structure of the head or tail is broken). If the index is 3, then this means that each "defective" sperm has at least three malformations together. Multiple defects of spermatozoa are quite often.

The index of teratozoospermia is calculated quite simply: the number of identified anomalies is divided by the number of "ugly" cells. If the value obtained is in the range of 0 to 1.6, then this is considered normal.and a man may well conceive a child by himself. The higher ITL, the less chance of natural conception.

According to morphological data, the spermatozoon, which is defective, does not carry the best set of chromosomes.The fetus, which initially develops with an anomaly, is most often rejected by the female body in the early stages - miscarriage occurs.

The most unpleasant, in terms of predicting pregnancy, are dysfunctions of the sperm head. In this case, the embryo overwhelmingly has chromosomal abnormalities. Sometimes these kids manage to survive, but what kind of life will it be! It is for this reason that independent attempts to conceive a child with established teratozoospermia are a big risk for the couple.

Intrauterine insemination is also not suitable for couples in whom a man is diagnosed with teratozoospermia. If the treatment does not help, then doctors use technologies such as IVF and ICSI. We will tell about them below.

When detecting teratozoospermia, a man must pass through several important diagnostic stages before the doctor prescribes treatment. Indeed, much depends on the true cause of the violation of morphological forms. Do not refuse to diagnose - this is the main difficulty in treating teratozoospermia: men are shy, do not consider this diagnosis important, refuse to look at the problem "in the eyes".

You may need the following examinations:

• general blood and urine tests, biochemical blood test with obligatory determination of sugar level;
• spermogram with obligatory determination of the index of teratozoospermia and the index of multiple anomalies;
• "Hormonal profile" - a blood test for hormones;

• MAP test;
• biochemical analysis of sperm and semen;
• Ultrasound scrotum with doppler;
• tests for sexually transmitted diseases, as well as sexually transmitted infections, including "hidden";
• genetics consultation.

Compensatory capabilities of the human body are quite large. Often, if the cause of teratozoospermia remained undetected, tests did not show deviations, a man, in order to improve spermogram, it is enough to simply change the urban gas atmosphere to a rural one, eliminate stress factors, start eating natural products without dyes, stop drinking and stop smoking. Improvements can be seen in 2-3 months - it takes so much time for young sperm to mature.

Teratozoospermia can be cured almost always, except in cases of the genetic origin of the ailment. If sperm cells are formed “ugly” initially, there will be few options: take a foster child to the family or use the services of a donor sperm bank. Fortunately, genetic mutations of germ cells are less common. Other causes that will come to light during the examination can and should be treated.

If the reason lies in the varicocele (this is a fairly frequent variant of the origin of the pathology), then the problem is completely eliminated by carrying out an uncomplicated surgical operation. If sperm mutations have occurred on the background of an infectious disease, including sexual, the doctor prescribes a course of treatment depending on the type of pathogen. Most often use the latest generation of antibiotics, vitamin preparations.

If the infection is viral - immunomodulators and antiviral agents, antiherpetic drugs - with established genital herpes. If a man has problems with hormones, then an endocrinologist prescribes treatment for him. It all depends on what hormones are exceeded or in deficit, it will show a “hormonal profile”.

In any course of treatment, a man is recommended to take concomitant medications that perform auxiliary functions in improving spermatogenesis. These include:

• Spermaktin-Forte;
• "Yodomarin";
• Verona;
• Tribestan;
• vitamins C, A and E separately;
• vitamin complexes for men with obligatory content of zinc and selenium;
• folic acid (in addition to the vitamin complex).

In addition, a man is recommended to lead a healthy lifestyle: to engage in sports (in this case means not exhausting strength training in the gym, but light jogging in the fresh air), balanced and proper nutrition. At the time of treatment should abandon the wearing of tight bottoms and tight pants, visits to the bath, sauna and solarium.

The diet of a man who is seriously determined to defeat teratozoospermia should include nuts and seafood, celery, dairy products, especially sour cream and butter, dried apricots, raisins, lemons and dates, cheese and eggs.

If treatment begins in a timely manner and the man “doesn’t shirk,” but consciously and responsibly treats all prescriptions, then in 95% of cases the spermogram returns to normal values ​​approximately for the first six months. The effect of treatment may not be if a man has a crippling testicle, an atrophic orchitis.

As we have already found out, treatment will not help some men. But this does not mean that they will not be able to become loving and caring fathers. For those to whom the treatment did not help, there are other methods, the main thing is not to despair. They belong to assisted reproductive technologies, and the most important thing for a man is to stop obstinate, be shy and turn with his wife to specialists at the family planning center or a specialized clinic. Such medical institutions are now in any city.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is most common among the auxiliary methods. In this case, from the ejaculate, even if it contains only 1-2% of normal sperm, only healthy cells will be excreted, which will be used to fertilize the female egg.

Quite effective proved to be ICSI method - intracytoplasmic (intracellular) injection of a spermatozoon into an egg cell. If the teratozoospermia index is high, doctors suspect that fertilization may not occur, and may apply the ICSI-MAX method. This is a microscopic analysis of the quality of male sex cells. Virtually manually select only those cells in which there is no violation of the morphology. Such cells have a higher chance that the correct set of chromosomes is preserved. Among the best so choose the only one, the most ideal for conception.

Whatever way reproductive specialists use, all living sperm will be divided into several groups:

• those that are suitable for conceiving a child;
• those that are not suitable for this purpose;
• sperm, which can lead to miscarriage in a woman or to conceive a child with chromosomal pathologies.

Select only the normal genetic material - the chances of conceiving will be increased. Thus, even if the semen indicators are far from ideal, a man may well become a father, even if artificially. Such reproductive technologies today will not require a large financial cost from a couple.

Reviews on the treatment of teratozoospermia in the Internet are left mostly by women, men seem to be embarrassed to write about their experiences in overcoming such a delicate intimate problem. The wives are happy to share the recipes, talk about the schemes that were prescribed to their spouses, and what medicines their husbands took during the treatment.

Many emphasize that "Spermaktin" showed high performance, but not by itself, but in combination with vitamins and L-carnitine. Additionally, men took pumpkin juice on an empty stomach, honey. For those who have just begun treatment for this form of male infertility, the “experienced” recommend to be patient - the treatment can be very long. It is important that it be consistent and persistent.

It may be necessary to supplement the treatment with effective and well-proven traditional medicine. In violation of the morphology of sperm, according to reviews, not bad helps a decoction of the leaves of black currant, which a man will have to drink for at least a month a glass per day. Birch buds, oats are also brewed, a decoction is made from dandelion roots.

The most difficult thing is to persuade a man to part with his favorite mug of beer every night and cigarettes. But many people succeed in this, as evidenced by pregnant “tickers” in the forums of women who recently talked about the inability to conceive a baby because of teratozoospermia.

About male infertility, its causes and treatment, see the following video.