Explore the vast range of titles available.

This study analyzed the effects of male age and abstinence time on semen quality and explored the best abstinence time for Chinese males among different age groups. Semen parameters, including sperm kinetics, morphology, and DNA fragmentation index (DFI), were reviewed from 2952 men. Samples were divided into six age groups (≤25 years, 26-30 years, 31-35 years, 36-40 years, 41-45 years, and >45 years) and were divided into six groups according to different abstinence time (2 days, 3 days, 4 days, 5 days, 6 days, and 7 days). The differences in semen quality between the groups were compared, and the effect of age and abstinence time on semen quality was analyzed. Significant differences were observed in semen volume, progressive motility (PR), and DFI among the age groups (all P < 0.05), and no significant differences were observed in sperm morphological parameters (all P > 0.05). There were significant differences in semen volume, PR, and DFI among different abstinence time groups (all P < 0.05) and no significant differences in sperm morphological parameters (all P > 0.05). Pearson analysis showed that male age and abstinence time were both significantly correlated with sperm kinetics and DFI (both P < 0.05), while no significant correlation was found with sperm morphological parameters (all P > 0.05). The box plots and histograms of men's age, abstinence time, and semen quality show that most semen quality parameters differ significantly between the 2 days and 7 days abstinence groups and other groups at different ages. Except for the sperm morphology parameters, sperm kinetic parameters and sperm DFI are linearly related to male age and abstinence time.

Mycoplasma species (spp.) are bacteria that are difficult to detect. Currently, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is considered the most effective diagnostic tool to detect these microorganisms in both human and veterinary medicine. There are 13 known species of human Mycoplasma and 15 species of canine Mycoplasma. Owing to the difficulties in identifying the individual species of Mycoplasma, there is a lack of information regarding which species are saprophytic and which are pathogenic. The prevalence of the individual species is also unknown. In addition, in both humans and dogs, the results of some studies on the impact of Mycoplasma are conflicting. The presence of Mycoplasma spp. on the epithelium of reproductive tract is often associated with infertility, although they are also detected in healthy individuals. The occurrence of Mycoplasma spp. is more common in dogs (even 89%) than in humans (1.3%-4%). This is probably because the pH of a dog's genital is more conducive to the growth of Mycoplasma spp. than that of humans. Phylogenetically, human and canine Mycoplasma are related, and majority of them belong to the same taxonomic group. Furthermore, 40% of canine Mycoplasma spp. are placed in common clusters with those of human. This suggests that species from the same cluster can play a similar role in the canine and human reproductive tracts. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge about the impact of Mycoplasma on canine and human male fertility as well as the prospects of further development in this field.

For infertility treatment, the selection of in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is decided by multiplying indicators (including fallopian tube factors, semen count, and semen motility), except for sperm morphology. In this study, we conducted a retrospective analysis, from implantation to birth, over a period of 5 years. A total of 1873 couples with primary or secondary fallopian tube factors and an increased defective sperm morphology rate (DSMR) were divided into different groups to receive IVF or ICSI cycles. By comparing the outcomes, we found that the F1 group (DSMR <96%, IVF group 1) had higher cleavage rate, biochemical pregnancy rate, clinical pregnancy rate, and live birth rate than the F3 group (DSMR >98%, IVF group 3; P < 0.05). In contrast, there was no significant difference in the ICSI subgroups. Furthermore, a comparison of the outcomes between IVF and ICSI showed that the S3 group (DSMR >98%, ICSI group 3) had higher cleavage rate (P < 0.001), biochemical pregnancy rate (P < 0.05), clinical pregnancy rate (P < 0.05) and live birth rate (P < 0.05) than the F3 group. However, the ICSI subgroup had a lower two pronuclei fertilization rate than the IVF subgroup (P < 0.05). Our data suggest that the sperm morphology should also be considered when selecting IVF or ICSI combined with other semen parameters before the first assisted reproductive technologies (ART) cycle, especially for males with severe sperm defects.

Sperm morphology assessment is recognised as a critical, yet variable, test of male fertility. This variability is due in part to the lack of standardised training for morphologists. This study utilised a bespoke ‘Sperm Morphology Assessment Standardisation Training Tool’ to train novice morphologists using machine learning principles and consisted of two experiments. Experiment 1 assessed novice morphologists’ (n = 22) accuracy across 2- category (normal; abnormal), 5- category (normal; head defect, midpiece defect, tail defect, cytoplasmic droplet), 8- category (normal; cytoplasmic droplet; midpiece defect; loose heads and abnormal tails; pyriform head; knobbed acrosomes; vacuoles and teratoids; swollen acrosomes), and 25- category (normal; all defects defined individually) classification systems, with untrained users achieving 81.0 ± 2.5%, 68 ± 3.59%, 64 ± 3.5%, and 53 ± 3.69%, respectively. A second cohort (n = 16) exposed to a visual aid and video significantly improved first-test accuracy (94.9 ± 0.66%, 92.9 ± 0.81%, 90 ± 0.91% and 82.7 ± 1.05, p < 0.001). Experiment 2 evaluated repeated training over four weeks, resulting in significant improvement in accuracy (82 ± 1.05% to 90 ± 1.38%, p < 0.001) and diagnostic speed (7.0 ± 0.4s to 4.9 ± 0.3s, p < 0.001). Final accuracy rates reached 98 ± 0.43%, 97 ± 0.58%, 96 ± 0.81%, and 90 ± 1.38% across classification systems 2-, 5-, 8- and 25-categories respectively. Significant differences in accuracy and variation were observed between the classification systems. This tool effectively standardised sperm morphology assessment. Future research could explore its application in other species, including in human andrology, given its accessibility and adaptability across classification systems.

Traditional sperm morphology assessment relies on manual visual inspection or semi-automated computer-aided sperm analysis (CASA) systems, which often require labor-intensive pre-processing steps. While recent machine learning approaches, particularly convolutional neural networks (CNNs), have improved feature extraction from sperm images, achieving a fully automated and highly accurate system remains challenging due to the complexity of sperm morphology and the need for specialized image adjustments. This study presents a novel, end-to-end automated sperm morphology analysis framework based on vision transformers (ViTs), which processes raw sperm images from two benchmark datasets-Human Sperm Head Morphology (HuSHeM) and Sperm Morphology Image Data Set (SMIDS)-without manual pre-processing. We conducted an extensive hyperparameter optimization study across eight ViT variants, evaluating learning rates, optimization algorithms, and data augmentation scales. Our experiments demonstrated that data augmentation significantly enhances ViT performance by improving generalization, particularly in limited-data scenarios. A comparative analysis of CNNs, hybrid models, and pure ViTs revealed that transformer-based architectures consistently outperform traditional methods. The BEiT_Base model achieved state-of-the-art accuracies of 92.5% (SMIDS) and 93.52% (HuSHeM), surpassing prior CNN-based approaches by 1.63% and 1.42%, respectively. Statistical significance ( p < 0.05, t -test) confirmed these improvements. Visualization techniques (Attention Maps, Grad-CAM) further validated ViTs’ superior ability to capture long-range spatial dependencies and discriminative morphological features, such as head shape and tail integrity. Our work bridges a critical gap in reproductive medicine by delivering a scalable, fully automated solution that eliminates manual intervention while improving diagnostic accuracy. These findings underscore the potential of transformer-based models in clinical andrology, with implications for broader applications in biomedical image analysis.

Objectives: To assess the effects of sodium valproate on rat sperm morphology, sperm count, motility, and histopathological changes in testis. Materials and Methods: Male Wistar rats (12 week old) were treated with sodium valpraote and sacrificed at the end of 2 nd , 4 th , 5 th , 7 th , 10 th and 15 th week after the last exposure to sodium valproate. Epididymal sperm count, sperm motility, sperm morphology, and histopathology of testes were analyzed. Results: Sperm count and sperm motility were decreased significantly by sodium valproate. The percentage of abnormal sperms increased in a dose-dependent manner. A histopathological study revealed that sodium valproate had caused sloughing of epithelial cells in testes. Conclusion: Sodium valproate causes reversible change in sperm motility, sperm count, morphology, and cytoarchitecture of testes.

The study objective was to evaluate the potential reproductive toxicity of sulfoxaflor (SFX) insecticide in male Sprague Dawley rats. To attain these objectives, forty male Sprague Dawley rats of 10–12 weeks old were randomly divided into four equal groups; the 1st group was used as a control group; the other three groups were exposed to 25, 100, and 500 mg/kg body weight SFX by oral gavage for 4 weeks. Relative testicular weight, testosterone, FSH, LH, MDA, and GPx levels, sperm viability, sperm morphology, sperm DNA damage, and histopathological changes in testes, epididymis, and seminal vesical of these rats were investigated after 4 weeks. The results showed that SFX exposure resulted in a significant increase in FSH, LH, MDA, and GPx levels as well as the percentage of dead and abnormal sperms and DNA damage in rat sperms. Histopathological examination of testes established testicular degeneration with coagulative necrosis as well as the proliferation of interstitial connective tissue infiltrated with inflammatory cells with congestion of intertubular blood vessels in epididymis and degeneration of lining epithelium of seminal vesicles.

Varicocele is present in approximately 15% of men, and, although it is the most commonly diagnosed cause of male infertility, nearly two-thirds of men with varicoceles remain fertile. It was decided to make use of the current evidence obtained from the previous meta-analyses between 2004 and 2015 as well as available articles covering this field, preferably randomized controlled articles dealing with the topic of semen analysis before and after repair. Two important meta-analyses were discussed as well as other articles dealing with the topic of semen analysis before and after varicocelectomy. The evidence suggests that all semen parameters improve after varicocele repair. Based on the available evidence, it is clear that there is a benefit in treating men with a palpable varicocele. One can expect that all semen parameters will improve within 3 months after repair.

For sexually reproducing species, functionally competent sperm are critical to reproduction. While high atmospheric temperatures are known to influence the timing of breeding, incubation and reproductive success in birds, the effect of temperature on sperm quality remains largely unexplored. Here, we experimentally investigated the impact of ecologically relevant extreme temperatures on cloacal temperature and sperm morphology and motility in zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata. We periodically sampled males exposed to 30°C or 40°C temperatures daily for 14 consecutive days. Following a 12-day (23°C) recovery period, birds were again exposed to heat, but under the alternate treatment (e.g. birds initially exposed to 40°C were exposed to 30°C). Elevated temperatures led to an increase in cloacal temperature and a reduction in the proportion of sperm with normal morphology; these effects were most notable under 40°C conditions, and were influenced by the duration of heat exposure and prior exposure to high temperature. Our findings highlight the potential role of temperature in determining male fertility in birds, and perhaps also in constraining the timing of avian breeding. Given the increased frequency of heatwaves in a warming world, our results suggest the need for further work on climatic influences on sperm quality and male fertility.

ObjectivesEnvironmental exposure to chemicals has been considered a potential factor contributing to deteriorated semen quality. However, previous literature on exposure to air pollution and semen quality is inconsistent. We therefore investigated the health effects of short-term and long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on semen quality in Taiwanese men from the general population.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 6475 male participants aged 15–49 years who participated in a standard medical examination programme in Taiwan between 2001 and 2014. Semen quality was assessed according to the WHO 1999 guidelines, including sperm concentration, total motility, progressive motility and morphology. Three-month and 2-year average PM2.5 concentrations were estimated at each participant’s address using a spatiotemporal model based on satellite-derived aerosol optical depth data. Multivariable linear and logistic regressions were used to examine the associations between PM2.5 and semen quality.ResultsA robust association was observed between exposure to PM2.5 and decreased normal morphology. Every increment of 5 µg/m3 in 2-year average PM2.5 was significantly associated with a decrease of 1.29% in sperm normal morphology and a 26% increased risk of having the bottom 10% of sperm normal morphology, after adjusting for a wide range of potential confounders (p<0.001). On the other hand, an increment of 5 µg/m3 in 2-year average PM2.5 was associated with an increase of 1.03×106/mL in sperm concentration and a 10% decreased risk of being the bottom 10% of sperm concentration (both p<0.001). Similar results were found for 3-month PM2.5.ConclusionsExposure to ambient PM2.5 air pollution is associated with a lower level of sperm normal morphology and a higher level of sperm concentration.