just saw sperm under microscope

wow, that was not an easy task.  so here was my finding:

I bought a kid scope for $30. I read that it needs to be 300-600x.  you must have a 600X to see anything.  you must be very still yourself to view the swimmers. the other issue was I could not just see the sperm, my eyelashes kept reflecting into the light.  grrr.

sperm lived 2 hrs with no medium added.

I made several slides over the 2 hrs. on 2 slides I added lime/water and the sperm DIED IMMEDIATELY. so this is not something i will be doing next attempt.

I saw TONS of healthy looking fast straight swimmers, circlers and just goofballs that got stuck in the clumping. at 1 1/2 hrs I still a couple fast swimmers, also a few were kind of wiggling but unable to "swim"

 it was kind of sad to watch them die.  serioulsy. 

It was an amazing and exciting process to watch.  I literally had my face glued to that scope for 2 hrs.

 my dh has a morphology issue and is a smoker so I wanted to see if anything was worse.  I can't see morph but I can see how many and how they are moving. just in a small sample corner there were easily 40. so I am estimating at least a million. and almost all were moving well within 10 minutes of "obtaining the sample"  ; )

 I don't think I will be checking on them again.  But have fun doing it yourself!  post your info

I know this post is old, but I wanted to respond because I just tried my scope for the first time a couple days ago. I tried to find the sperm for about 45 minutes with no luck. I bought a $250 scope so maybe it will take longer for me to find the right magnification. I don't know, I thought it would have been easy.

And yeah, I agree the eyelashes are a pain in the arse. I will be trying again next time we DTD. I hope I see something then.

I would suggest 400X and turn the bottom light scope upwards a bit.  also you need the actual scope that looks at the slide, very close.  then go up and down a bit to see if you can focus it. 

it took me about 2 hrs the first time to get it.  and sadly each additional time after that it would take about 10 minutes to relingn it all up. 

What do you mean by turn the bottom light scope upwards? I will try it on the 400X, I just have to figure out what that one is

oh mine had a light that light the scope.  the battery went in the bottom and the light turned on by flipping the magnafine glass or light under where the slide goes. 

the 400x, 600x is near the eye piece.  you should just be able to rotate it clockwise.

As an fyi, the angle that you have the light also affects how easily you can see the sperm...that was one of the things that I figured out the hard way.

 my ds has a cheapy microscope from walmart.  The bulb broke so I had to hold a flashlight at the mirror and get it pointed just right.  Still, I saw some wigglers.. none that were swimming necesarrily, but trying to.  I wonder if that means anything.  I couldn't count them, as my hand would shake the flashlight and I only caught glimpses.  Still, at least there are some there.. and they are alive.

I'm curious how they do with sylk.  I have been using it for the last 2 months with no baby.  So.. maybe it does the same thing as lime.  It's not quite as low pH but it's pretty low.  If anyone else uses it, and you have a better microscope, check it out and let me know!  lol.

well my ph is low and when i add my ph to sperm they don't live all that long.  and the 2 times I did get preggo it was cause my ph was higher.  but again I am dealing w a male fertility factor.

I think the lube you are using is very low ph.  may be killing everything off. I'd try without it.  I plan to use preseed.  I have read several moms getting DD with it.