And its appearance is not a reflection of the DNA. That's what I've been telling couples when the male has severe abnormalities in his semen parameters. This especially applies to the appearance of the sperm (teratozoospermia), the strict morphology. Now a study in the March 2010 issue of Fertility & Sterility confirms the accuracy of my statement.

They looked at couples going through cycles of IVF with ICSI and correlated their outcomes with the degree of abnormality in the measurement of sperm appearance, the strict morphology. Fertilization rates were high (74%–77%), and clinical pregnancy rates ranged from 60% (subgroup with 0% normal sperm) to 56% (subgroup with ≥7% normal forms). The highest pregnancy and live birth rates were actually observed in eggs fertilized with sperm from specimens with the most severe teratozoospermia. The percentage of high-quality blastocysts was significantly greater in the severely teratozoospermic patients compared with patients with ≥5% normal sperm (37% vs. 28%). This is likely because in the lower morphology subgroups, female factors are less prevalent and the primary infertility problem is male factor.

So, according to this study,  those couples needing IVF with ICSI for severe teratozoospermia can rest assured that they do not have to worry that this abnormaility will adversly affect the outcome of their IVF cycles.