Many men contact us concerned that their semen looks too yellow, green, red, or even gray. Some because they only produce a few drops and others because it is very abundant, but it looks transparent and liquid.

But there are also many who think that since their semen looks normal and everything seems to be working fine for them, it must be the woman’s fault for not getting pregnant.

Semen is much more complex than its color, consistency, or volume.

40% of infertility cases come from a problem with the quality of sperm.

Even a low volume, slightly reddish and transparent semen may have more chances of achieving a pregnancy than a white and abundant one… And to understand why we need a microscope.

Semen is only the liquid that helps spermatozoa to swim and move, in an average ejaculation there are 65 million spermatozoa and since in the illustrations the spermatozoa are always white, most people think that if the semen is white it is because it has many spermatozoa and if it is transparent it is because it has few.

Sperm are semi-transparent and the color of semen comes from a vitamin B2-like substance called flavin.

That’s why even if a man has a vasectomy and his semen no longer contains sperm, it maintains its white color. The semen looks completely normal and healthy, but it cannot achieve a pregnancy.

• The yellow color may be due to the presence of urine.
• Red means blood.
• Green means infections.
• Other variations are due to the type of diet or exposure to chemical substances.

At Creafam, the first thing we do is count how many mobile sperm there are for each milliliter of semen, a reticle is used and they are classified into 3 types; progressive mobile, that is to say those that swim well forward, mobile in situ that is to say that they shake but do not advance and immobile that is to say that they do not move. It is necessary that at least 40% of the sperm move well to consider that the semen is healthy.

Suppose this sample passes 40%, the next step is to analyze the morphology.

If the head is too big, deformed or double, it is very unlikely that this sperm will be able to penetrate the egg. If the middle body has deformities, it may indicate that these sperm have mitochondrial problems and will surely run out of energy halfway through.

A sperm with a deformed tail could fertilize the egg, but it is unlikely that it will end its journey.

And of course there are cases in which many sperm have combinations of these deformations and it is known as Oligoastenoteratozoospermia.

Other diagnoses that can be obtained from the seminogram are:

• Asthenozoospermia: When less than 40% swim well.
• Teratozoospermia: When there are too many sperm with deformities.
• Azoospermia: If there are no sperm in the semen… Dr. Otto Paredes explains his treatment here.
• Necrozospermia: When more than 40% are dead.
• Normospermia: When everything looks good.

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