Incidence of abnormalities in sperm morphology as an indicator of its fertilizing potential

A retrospective analysis was carried out to assess the correlation of sperm morphology with the occurrence of fertilization in vitro of human oocytes. Seventy women who were subjected to in vitro fertilization procedure were taken up for this study. The cytological smears of semen were evaluated for the morphological characteristics of spermatozoa. Instances where in vitro fertilization did not occur (group II) had significantly (P less than 0.001) higher morphological abnormalities (head defects) when compared with those where fertilization occurred in vitro (group I). The results indicate that evaluation of sperm morphology with special reference to head abnormalities has diagnostic potential in human in vitro fertilization.