Histopathology

Wide repertoires of specialised techniques are available to facilitate diagnosis, including immunocytochemistry.

Andrology services provided:
Infertility analysis of semen: to analyse for sperm concentration, sperm motility and sperm morphology.

Post vasectomy analysis of semen: to analyse semen for the presence of spermatozoa to provide information of success of vasectomy.

Changes to the Andrology service provided by The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

Please note that the Histopathology Andrology service is now providing fertility semen analysis in line with updated standards, and have moved from WHO 5th Edition (2010) to WHO 6th Edition (2021), which will result in changes to the Laboratory report and clinical interpretation.

Summary of changes:

• A vitality assessment will be performed to determine whether non-motile spermatozoa are vital or non-vital, these results will not be issued on the Laboratory report but will be available upon request to Laboratory if required.
• The presence or absence of sample odour will be included on the Laboratory report.
• All sperm defects will now be assessed as part of the analysis, to include Head defects, Neck/mid piece defects, Tail defects and Excess residual cytoplasm defects, these results will not be issued on the Laboratory report but will be available upon request to the Laboratory if required. 
• Performance characteristics of the assessed spermatozoa have changed, this will be included within the Laboratory report and a test result guidance for semen analysis will be provided with the Laboratory report.

• Samples must be delivered to the department within 30 minutes after collection, and no later than 50 minutes.    

Please note, samples received outside of the specified requirements may have an impact on the reported values and the Laboratory cannot guarantee that there are no adverse effects.

Any deviation from the specified requirements or any discrepancies will be noted on the Laboratory report with a comment 'Please accept this report at your discretion'.

• The patient information leaflet has been updated to reflect the changes to the patient and sample requirements prior to analysis, and copies will be provided when requests for sample containers are requested from the Laboratory.
• Information for our users is available within our histopathology user handbook.
• The Laboratory has been assessed by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) for this change in line with the Department's Schedule of Accreditation. 

If you have any queries, please contact the Histopathology Andrology Department on 01709 424020

The content of this page was last updated: 22 September 2023 by Dan Firth