Good practice in laboratory diagnostic andrology: Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists guidelines 2024

These guidelines update and clarify items relating to diagnostic andrology in the 2012 Association of Biomedical Andrologists Laboratory Andrology Guidelines for Good Practice Version 3. The main change separates diagnostic and therapeutic andrology into individual documents; post-vasectomy semen analysis still references the 2016 guideline. These guidelines seek to incorporate and clarify internationally agreed methodology following the World Health Organization Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen 6th edition and publication of ISO 23162:2021. Significant updates include: requiring four-category grading for motility (A, rapidly progressive; B, slowly progressive; C, non-progressive; D, immotile); a four-part morphology assessment (head, midpiece, tail, cytoplasmic droplets) as essential for quality assurance (even if only the percentage of ‘normal’ is reported); and specifying sperm toxicity testing procedures for diagnostic andrology. These guidelines include a section on haematospermia, an observation requiring rapid onward referral. An Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists (ARCS) working group wrote these guidelines, with review by ARCS members. The aim is to guide good practice in laboratories but they are not intended as a tool to judge the practice of centres within the UK or beyond.