Cytoplasmic droplets are normal structures of human sperm but are not well preserved by routine procedures for assessing sperm morphology

Abstract

The term 'cytoplasmic droplet' is confusingly used to describe two different sperm structures: large amounts of retained, excessive cytoplasmic remnants, that survive the air-drying procedure and are observed on abnormal sperm in conventionally stained sperm smears, and osmotically sensitive vesicles that are present on normal living sperm. A plea is made to retain the term 'cytoplasmic droplet' for the latter structure of normal sperm and to use the term 'excess residual cytoplasm' to describe the abnormally retained cytoplasm observed on abnormal sperm in smears.