PH OF HUMAN SEMEN

The World Health Organization (WHO) laboratory manual (1992) states th e normal values for pH in liquefied semen to be between 7.2 and 8.0. T his implies an adjustment compared with the previous version (WHO, 198 7) in which the upper limit was 7.8, whereas in the WHO clinical manua l (1993) the normal range of values is still stated to be in the range of 7.2-7.8. In this study pH was measured in ejaculates from 207 men in couples undergoing infertility examination. The pH was measured wit hin 30 and 60 min after ejaculation with both pH paper and pH meter. T he mean pH values were consistently well above 8.0 regardless of analy sis method and time after ejaculation. Since semen analysis is part of clinical assessment of male infertility and includes pH measurement, our findings suggest that the range of normal values needs to be revis ed further.