Semen analysis involves the following steps

Semen analysis involves the following steps (which are described in detail in subsequent
sections).
In the first 5 minutes:
 Placing the specimen container on the bench or in an incubator (37 °C) for
liquefaction.
Between 30 and 60 minutes:
 Assessing liquefaction and appearance of the semen.湖北省人民医院生殖医学中心杨菁
 Measuring semen volume.

 Measuring semen pH (if required).
 Preparing a wet preparation for assessing microscopic appearance, sperm
motility and the dilution required for assessing sperm number.
 Assessing sperm vitality (if the percentage of motile cells is low).
 Making semen smears for assessing sperm morphology.
 Making semen dilutions for assessing sperm concentration.
 Assessing sperm number.
 Performing the mixed antiglobulin reaction (MAR) test (if required).
 Assessing peroxidase-positive cells (if round cells are present).
 Preparing spermatozoa for the immunobead test (if required).
 Centrifuging semen (if biochemical markers are to be assayed).
Within 3 hours:
 Sending samples to the microbiology laboratory (if required).
After 4 hours:
 Fixing, staining and assessing smears for sperm morphology.
Later on the same day (or on a subsequent day if samples are frozen):
 Assaying accessory gland markers (if required).
 Performing the indirect immunobead test (if required).