Semen analysis after vasectomy.
Was the vasectomy successful?
The purpose of semen analysis after a vasectomy is to check whether any sperm are present in the ejaculate at all. It is not intended to assess their motility, analyse what percentage move quickly or slowly, or whether they are normally formed.
In a post-vasectomy test, finding even immotile sperm in numbers above 100,000 would mean the test needs to be repeated.
The presence of motile sperm 6 months after the procedure would mean the vasectomy has failed and must be repeated.
Most No Scalpel Vasectomy methods have a failure rate (recanalisation) of 5-9%! That is the norm, and a touch-up procedure is performed in every 20th to every 12th patient.
With the “CANADIAN” method used at ZdrOva (by us), which involves thermal coagulation and bringing the open testicular end outside the sheath of the spermatic cord, the failure rate is between 0 and 0.5%. At ZdrOva it is below 0.06%.
Possible results of semen analysis after vasectomy
- a normal sperm count – that would be a failed vasectomy!
- an abnormal, reduced sperm count
- a semen test done too early (sperm are stored in the prostate, seminal vesicles and the ampulla of the vas deferens, where they live for up to 90 days)
or - a failed vasectomy
- AZOOSPERMIA = NO SPERM – the state after a successful vasectomy.
- </= (less than or equal to) 100,000 immotile sperm per 1 cm3 – the state after a successful vasectomy. The minimum norm for normal fertility is 16,000,000 sperm per 1 cm3. 100,000 is 160 times less than the minimum norm! Such sperm (if immotile) are old, were produced long before the vasectomy and come from stores in the accessory glands (prostate, seminal vesicles, ampulla of the vas deferens). Such sperm are incapable of fertilising a woman’s egg cells.