Men - ever seen your own semen under a microscope?

It turns out you don't need much magnification to see the motion of the spermatozoa (about 40X!). A local department store had a Christmas sale on a cheap microscope set (less than $20 US) so I had to get one. Even with the less-than-professiona equipment, the motion was very clear on a fresh sample. Now if I could just figure a way to patch in a camera - a New Years project, perhaps?

For those interested - here's a link to a youtube video (not mine) :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvnEsOaKxuw

Any Playdoctor who would show me that after having me naked up in stirrups would be a friend for life!.

This could be a real shocker for someone 25 years old when they saw nothing moving on the slide!

Seriously though, it takes several minutes for the semen to liquify and for the sperm to reach full motility. Let it the semen stand on the slide for several minutes covered by the cover slip BEFORE your press down on the cover slip to see your sample on the microscope. Too much or too thick a layer of semen on the slide will make it harder to see your homnunculi moving. Also, keep in mind that not every drop of semen will have sperm unless you mix it up. If you jerk off and only catch the fraction from the prostate, which is the greatest fraction, you might miss the sperm, so gently mix the sample with your finger or something so the various components are mixed and you get full motility.

A plano apochromatic oil immersion objective is best. Using a phase contrast or a polarized light source will give you a real show.

Hey "switch" - don't scare 'em off (grin)

While all the fancy technical stuff is nice (and does make for a prettier picture) Van Leeuwenhoek saw spermatozoa in 1677 with one of the first, single lens microscopes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonie_van_Leeuwenhoek

Most any microscope capable of at least 40X, a plain microscope slide, a small bowl to catch a nice ejaculation, a finger to stir the ejaculate thoroughly and dab it on the slide are all that's really needed - not even a cover slip is absolutely necessary. If the first slide doesn't work, try another. Mine worked first time with just this plain set up.

This won't be research-grade images, but it will be fun.

And then one can go hunting for other little "aimalcules".

Not sure if I do or not but somethingt I would have not ever thought of.

I have often thought that I'd like to look at my sperm, but until I read this note, thought that I was the only man that was keen on seeing his! I may try to pick up a microscope in my travels.

I have! In fact, this is what I did when I as a kid, had masturbated myself for the first time ever. Apart from the delightful new sensation of orgasm, I wanted to be sure that what I had ejaculated was what I thought it was 😉. So I put a drop on a slide and put it under the microscope. It was a cool and fascinating sight, I could see the countless spermatozoa wiggling (couldn't see the tails with the equipment I had)

Yes, I have done this before. Many years ago probably about 15 to 20 years ago, I borrowed my brothers cheap microscope (without him knowing) and dropped some of my sperm onto a slide and put it under the microscope. I then very nervously looked down the lens, but all was well. You could see very clearly all the little fellas wiggling about, to my relief. 😃

I was very surprised to see it work, didn't know if the microscope would be powerful enough.

Speaking of watching your own sperm, just how do those who work in the Departments of Andrology count sperm? That is, give you a sperm count?

No, never have seen it ... thought it might be cool to see though.

Well, if I looked at my semen I would not see any sperm as I had a vasectomy and I never looked at it when I did have sperm.

Bill

I used to work in the lab. My main job there was to run a machine called a Dimension (sp?) machine and to do all the lab draws and collect all the samples from the ER.

It was a fairly small hospital, in a rather small town, so we didn't really see a whole lot of really cool things. But on occasion we would do sperm counts. And for the most part, most sperm all look the same, meaning same basic size and shape. Once in a while we would get one that wasn't quite normal. Normal or not, I have always liked looking at things, sperm included, under the scope. All of it fascinates me, but oddly enough, I really didn't enjoy, had to study my fanny off, and still struggled, to get through any and all of my microbiology classes.

But I have seen samples where there is one or only a few on the entire slide, and I have seen them when they are almost too numerous to count. I have seen some with no tails, extra short or long tails. It really is pretty cool to actually view them. It's even more amazing that something as tiny as a single sperm contains half of the required DNA for life. The human body in general just fascinates the crap out of me. We know so much about ourselves, but even as much as we think we know, as complex as a human body is, we really are only just getting started.

Mashie

No, I've never seen mine. Could be interesting an interesting add-on to a play exam, particularly if patient reports any possible problem with fertility or hasn't had it checked. Would be a bit worrying though if results didn't seem as good as expected.

I tried that a couple times in my teens, but never saw any motion. I figured the microscope I had wasn't good enough, but found out much later (at 30) that I have a genetic condition which causes infertility (everything works fine, just no swimmers). I wish I had known that when I was 18 ... could have saved me and my girlfriend a lot of worrying!

I got myself a cheap microscope in order to do just this. Great fun when I got it to work and could see the little chaps swimming about. I think the microscope is in the attic somewhere - must dig it out and have another go. And if any other guy wants an exam in which they get to examine their semen then let me know!!

Nope but would like to. might look out for a cheap microscope

As I said earlier, you don't need much magnification if you just want to see something wiggling 😄 The really good equipment suggested below is for much more detailed look at actual cells.

BTW - Ebay and a bunch of those Chinese drop shipment places have cheap 'scopes that should work.

On the cheap microscopes, you have to watch the heat from the light source as it will dry out and kill them off quickly.

Thats pretty cool i would deff like that

Never have, but have always wanted to for sure!!

Yes, I saw mine under a polarized light source. It was like the little tad poles were neon against a dark gray background.

Saw it a second time, years after vasectomy. I was having red-brown streaks in the semen and told a Dr. I called-on. We had lunch, went back to his office and he did a D.R.E on me and got some pre-cum out after a prostate massage. There were amorphous cells present and the Dr. said it looked like prostatitis. He gave me samples of Bactrim and in a week it was gone. The massage was not pleasant.

I did that once as a teen....kinda creeped me out, seeing what was in there...

I've done it and it was great fun seeing them wiggle around. My cousin did it at the same time...both of us had great swimmers. Another example of family bonding.

I almost always ask the patient to produce a semen sample at the end of their examination. I check the sperm count under a mid-range microscope and ask the patient if they want to see their own sperm. Most find it fascinating. Recently examined a guy who had had a vasectomy, and, as expected, there were no sperm. I find a magnification of at least 200x is needed to clearly see the shape of the sperm.

I've never seen sperm under a a microscope. I'm afraid I'll look too much like those little fellows! I thought they died once they hit the air.

I havent tried.i hope i can try

Back in high school, I had a microscope and wanted to be a scientist. I was looking for things to observe under the microscope. So I did try it once. I was surprised to see that they were actually visible and fast too! I would have liked to viewed an ovum under the microscope too, but was unable to figure out how to obtain one.

Yup - seen it couple times

Many years ago, when I was in high school, a student brought a sample of his semen along to biology class and placed it on a slide under the microscope. When the teacher noticed the slide and asked what was on it, the boy replied "Snot, sir" (we always called them "sir" in those days). But the game was up when the teacher took a look through the microscope's eyepiece for himself.

Yes I have seen in. When I bought my first microscope I was impatient I wanted to try it so I thought about the sample. Sperm was the first thing which occurred to me.