Difference between XX and XY sperm

[nuthinbutpink]

Hi Dr Wegner. Hope you are well.

I have a question about sperm. I have read that XX sperm swim in circles and XY swim in straight lines. Is there any truth to this?

IF there is, is it possible for us to witness this under a microscope if we wanted to see it?

[Carole]

Hi there nuthinbutpink,

Hope you are well too. No, there is absolutely no truth to that idea. If XX sperm all swam in circles, we'd have no girls on the planet! :) , since sperm must be able to swim straight to get to the egg- that "straight swimming" is what we call progressive motility. Too bad we don't have a nice visual check for gender - we'd all save a fortune in time and money on PGS!

Best wishes,
Carole

[nuthinbutpink]

Hi there nuthinbutpink,

Hope you are well too. No, there is absolutely no truth to that idea. If XX sperm all swam in circles, we'd have no girls on the planet! :) , since sperm must be able to swim straight to get to the egg- that "straight swimming" is what we call progressive motility. Too bad we don't have a nice visual check for gender - we'd all save a fortune in time and money on PGS!

Best wishes,
Carole

EXACTLY! I just see this kind of thing posted on other sites for people that are swaying and it is just silly the claims some make. We try to speak the truth here! Thank you!

[CrystalTipps]

I recognize that theory (Tamara)! Wouldn't it be great if it were that easy? I remember all the poor girls on IG going out and buying microscopes. So, do some sperm swim in circles, and is it because there is something wrong with them?

[rainbowflower]

yes, Crystal - I think it's just that they are damaged/defective ones which wouldn't naturally make it to the egg anyway

[atomic sagebrush]

Crystal, the interesting thing about that study was that it found that numbers of sperm affected how sperm swam MUCH more than the gender did. When there were a lot of sperm in the sample, all kinds of crazy swimming was going on. This study did seem to find that X and Y swam differently but it was in bull sperm and in vitro, not in vivo. Plus, this was after Microsort so who even knows how much that affected things. I would not base my sway around it, that's for sure! :)