Low Sperm Count

Oligospermia is a term that means you have a low sperm count. One medical definition is that you have fewer than 15 million sperm in 1 milliliter of semen. A typical sperm count is more than 15 million sperm per 1 milliliter of semen.

Besides being known as low sperm count, oligospermia is also called oligozoospermia. A severely low sperm count (fewer than 5 million sperm in 1 milliliter of semen) is also known as severe oligospermia.

What is the difference between oligospermia and azoospermia?

Oligospermia means that you do have a measurable amount of sperm in your semen, but the numbers are lower than the typical numbers. If you have azoospermia, it means there no sperm seen in your semen.

Having a low sperm count is a significant factor in infertility. You may be infertile if you’ve been trying to get pregnant (or get someone pregnant) for a year and haven’t yet done so. This means that for at least a year you’ve been having regular sex without using birth control methods.

How common is oligospermia?

Researchers aren’t sure how many people have oligospermia. The condition isn’t usually diagnosed unless a couple is trying to conceive and can’t. There are an estimated 180 million couples throughout the world who are dealing with infertility.

Infertility among people who have been assigned male at birth contributes to about half of the infertility issues overall. (Healthcare providers may call this male infertility or male-factor infertility.) This figure of about 50% includes situations where male factor infertility is the only factor and those more common situations where there are fertility factors in both partners.