Ten years' experience with an external quality control program for semen analysis

Objective To gauge the performance of laboratories and impact of the German semen analysis external quality control program (QuaDeGA) over its first 10 years. Design Retrospective analysis of QuaDeGA’s twice yearly distribution of fixed semen samples and electronic material documenting sperm motility. Ranking of each participant's responses was determined according to their relation to a “target window.” Setting Multicenter. Paitent(s) Healthy donors. Intervention(s) None. Main Outcome Measure(s) Laboratory performance, World Health Organization (WHO) adherence. Result(s) Over 19 runs, there was a steady increase of participants (280 laboratories), the largest group being private urologic practices. Although use of WHO-recommended Neubauer chamber (from 33% to 55%) and diluent (from 11% to 32%) increased, the opposite occurred with morphology staining protocols (from 41% to 19%). Overall,