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Sperm Pictures – Male Infertility Human Sperm Morphology

Fixed and stained human sperm pictures from our IVF lab

  • Sperm morphology scoring tells us what percent of the sperm are shaped normally
  • Very low morphology scores are associated with male infertility problems
  • Most fertility clinics (including ours) use the “Kruger strict morphology” criteria
  • Using the strict criteria, a relatively low percentage of sperm will be considered to be normal
  • At lease 200 stained sperm are examined with very high magnification to determine if the heads, neck pieces and tails are normal
  • The WHO (World Health Organization) now defines normal morphology as having 4% or more normal forms
  • Due to variations in scoring criteria and the subjective nature of morphology grading, morphology scores can vary significantly between laboratories (on the same sperm specimen)
  • If the sperm count and the motility are normal, a moderately low morphology score might not be indicative of a male fertility problem

Human sperm fixed and stained for morphology test

Several sperm shown on a morphology slide
Special stains and fixatives are used to prepare sperm for morphology evaluation


Normal human sperm morphology picture
Highly magnified human sperm with normal morphology
Human sperm are 55 microns in length – 460 sperms lined up head to tail equals 1 inch

Normal sperm morphology picture
This sperm is morphologically normal – it has a normal shape


Tapered head sperm abnormality
Abnormal morphology with tapered head

Abnormal sperm morphology with tapered head
Another tapered head abnormality

Pinhead sperm picture
Pinhead sperm

Sperm abnormality with amorphous head
Sperm showing amorphous head

Sperm with abnormally short tail
Short tail sperm

Smal round sperm head abnormality
Small round sperm head abnormality

Bent neck sperm abnormality
Bent neck sperm

Abnormal human sperm morphology image
Sperm photo – abnormal morphology
Head is too round, abnormal mid-piece

Abnormal sperm head shape and cytoplasmic droplets
Abnormal head shape – also with cytoplasmic droplets

Severely abnormal sperm morph pic with very short tails
Unusual situation with very abnormal sperm morphology
Picture shows sperm heads, sperm tails and sperm with very short tails
This man did not have any normal sperm


Sperm on counting chamber for semen analysis
Picture of human sperm as we see them in a counting chamber (Makler)
This tool is used to determine sperm counts (concentration) and motility percentages

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