Frontiers in sperm function testing: DNA fragmentation analysis shows promise

While semen analysis (SA) remains a cornerstone test in the evaluation of the infertile male, it is at best only a crude indication of fertility potential. Semen analyses classify infertile men based on the kind and degree of spermatogenic failure but do little to predict how well a sperm will function in vitro or in vivo. More importantly, men with normal semen analysis parameters can be infertile and vice a versa. Accordingly, sperm function tests were developed to address these clinical shortcomings of SA.