Sperm Motility

sporty5

Hi everyone. I just purchased my very first viles and couldn't be more excited. I do have a question though, on the paper work I received to keep my viles stored it gives me the motility of the sperm and the count. And to be honest I have no idea if the numbers are good or not. I purchased ICI cause my doctor does the washing at there offices so I know I will loss some count. It says the post-thaw motility is 35% and the total motile cells/dose is 16.25 million. Anyone out there willing to share what they got so I have something to compare to. Also do you know if when you go to the doctor the count turns out about the same or is there a big difference? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

hotmama5623

You need at least 50% motility to get pregnant. It is possible with less than that but it may take several rounds. Motility is the rate at which they swim. Counts are not as important as the motility. I'd definitely call them. Motility sometimes increases when the sample is washed. The washing takes away unhealthy sperm and thus increases the ability for the rest to swim at full potential.

sporty5

Oh wow it has to be 50% geezz thats a bit of a difference. Well from what I can tell Fairfax only guarantees 10 million count nothing on motility so I guess I may just thave to wait and see what the final motility is once my doctor washes it. Thanks so much for replying back any little bit of information always helps. I guess I just wish the motility was a bit better but from what I hear sometimes its still possible even with such a low percentage. Thanks again for your reply. Any additional replys are always welcome. Sometimes I feel like selecting a new donor or one that doesn't have a positive pregnancy yet is always a bit more risky but maybe I will be the first positive one for my donor.

Anne72

I've found that the counts vary greatly based on who does the prep. Even using the same doctor, I used two different locations, same donor and wildly different counts. I would see what your doctor says after the prep. They will know what their normal count range is for both count and motility

hotmama5623

Yes! Please don't get discouraged! It usually does change with the wash. Like our motility using my husbands was 5% and then post wash it was 75%. It can change greatly. I've also know people to get pg with less than 50%. I think its the luck of the draw

sporty5

Aww thanks hotmama... I will keep my fingers crossed that it will increase after the prep... :P After all like most people say it only really takes one right...

Fairfax Cryobank

Here is a great discussion about sperm motility from Fairfax Cryobank's Laboratory Director, Michelle Ottey.

Here is some information about motility and count to clarify the importance of these factors with regard to frozen sperm. If you think about the vial of sperm there are two things that are important on the post thaw at your clinic:

1. That the proper thaw procedure is used, as specified on the instructions that accompany the dose
2. The analysis of the sample upon thaw will look at the count and the motility

It is not motility alone that is important, nor is it count alone that are important. The magic number is the Total Motile Cells (TMC.)

For example, your clinic may thaw a vial that has a motility of 50% post thaw and a count of 5 million cells. To get the TMC you multiply the count by the motility. In this case you would have a total of 2.5 million motile cells, 2.5 million swimmers.

A better vial would be one where you have a post thaw of, let’s say 35% motility and a count of 30 million cells. This would mean 10.5 million motile cells, 10.5 million swimmers.

Motility is not an indicator of the individual sperm’s ability to get the job done, rather it is the total number of sperm minus the non-motile cells.

Hope this helps with your motility concerns. Please let me know if anyone has more questions - there is so much to know about sperm!

waiting4baby5

sporty5 wrote:

Hi everyone. I just purchased my very first viles and couldn't be more excited. I do have a question though, on the paper work I received to keep my viles stored it gives me the motility of the sperm and the count. And to be honest I have no idea if the numbers are good or not. I purchased ICI cause my doctor does the washing at there offices so I know I will loss some count. It says the post-thaw motility is 35% and the total motile cells/dose is 16.25 million. Anyone out there willing to share what they got so I have something to compare to. Also do you know if when you go to the doctor the count turns out about the same or is there a big difference? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Sporty5, my first donor IUI cycle I had 15.1 million count and 35% motility. I was concerned about the numbers and confronted my doctor about it, however her and the nurse were both pleased with the numbers. I was reassured at that point (cause what do I know?), however after reading Fairfax's reply...now I'm concerned! My first cycle was BFN and we are currently 3dpiui on cycle 2 with 15 million count and 38% motility. Boy, sometimes I feel like I need a genetics degree just to UNDERSTAND some of this stuff. :? Please let me know how your final counts are and how much they changed. I wish you the very best of luck!

hotmama5623

Our cycle was just done and we had 57.5 million with 35% motility. Im assuming this is good? However i did it the day of positive opk. im hoping i didnt screw this up.

sporty5

So after careful analysis of the papers I received from Fairfax I noticed that the 16.25 million that I thought was the sperm count turns out to be the TMC (Total Motile Cells). Which I guess is a good thing after reading the above explination from the Fairfax admin. So I am guessing that his actual sperm count must be around 46.48 million (I came to this by dividing 16.25 (TMc) by .35 percent). So I guess if thats true then the count might not be so bad. But I will just have to wait and see what my doctor tells me. I wish there was an easy way to understand all this stuff. The only thing I am a little worried about is that purchased ICI so they still need to be washed. Hopefully I won't lose too many in the process. I will for sure come back on here once I go through my first cycle which should be in June! Baby Dust to everyone!!!

waiting4baby5

Good catch Sporty5! After reading your post, I went home and checked my paperwork...mine is also Total Motile Cells which means our actual counts are around 30 million. That makes much more sense now!

sporty5

As promised I am back to report on my count and motility for my donor. First I had purchased ICI vials since my doctors office perfers to wash the samples at there office. My doctor likes to perform back to back IUI to enhance the chance of getting prego. So with that said my first vial pre-wash was 80million/milliliter (Now please keep in mind that each sample from fairfax is only about .5 millileters so its half of that) So really he had only 40 million count and the motility was 35%. This gives you (40 x .35)=14 million TMC (total motile count which is what matters). Then they wash the sample after washing it decreased significatly to 16.5 million/milliter but the motility increased to 65%. Unfortunately instead of .5 millilter it was reduced to .3 milliliters i guess you lose some from the wash. So hears the final math (16.5 million count x .3 milliliter x .65 percent motility = 3.3 TMC which is not very good at all when they like to see at least 5 million TMC. Unfortunately since the count was over farifax 10 million TMC guarantee I am not able to return it which leads me to believe that it might be better to purchase the already washed IUI so if its lower than the 10 million TMC you can get a refund. Not sure why my doctors office lost so much of them but I may just go with IUI on my next try if this doesn't work. Currently on my 2ww. I am 4DPIUI so keeping my fingers crossed. Hope this helps those of you understand how the total motile count works. Sometimes doctors through out a really high number for the count but you have to do a little math to find the TMC.