The following is a list of materials needed for semen analysis. Laboratories will differ slightly in the equipment used. Use of this equipment will be described further in the later pages of this course.

Materials needed include:

• graduated test tube or serological pipets with safety bulb to measure volume
• pH paper in neutral to basic range (e.g. 7.2-8.8)
• counting chamber and/or automated counting machine
• glass slides and coverslips for wet mount if motility and sperm count are to be assessed separately
• hand counter
• if dilution is done
  • diluting fluid
  • calibrated automatic pipets
  • positive pressure pipets and glass bores
• light microscope with phase contrast objectives for sperm count and bright field objectives for morphology assessment
• glass slides and fixative for morphology slides
• set-up for performing Papanicolaou or other morphology staining

Every laboratory should also have a copy of the "WHO Laboratory Manual for the Examination of Human Semen and Sperm-Cervical Mucus Interaction", published on behalf of the WHO by Cambridge University Press. The fourth edition was published in 1999.