THE COMBINATION OF 2 SEMEN PREPARATION TECHNIQUES (GLASS WOOL FILTRATION AND SWIM-UP) AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF RECOVERED SPERMATOZOA AND OUTCOME OF IVF-ET

The aim of this prospective study was to relate sperm quality, especia lly sperm morphology, to the outcome of IVF results, when glass wool f iltration (GWF) and swim-up were used in combination for the preparati on of spermatozoa. A total of 60 ejaculates were analysed. GWF was com pared with glass wool filtration/swim-up (GWF-SU) by using aliquots fr om the same semen samples to increase the precision of the comparison and to establish the cumulative effect of these two semen preparation methods on the morphology of the recovered spermatozoa. Sperm paramete rs were examined in native semen, in semen preparation samples after G WF and GWF-SU. The mean percentages for motility, morphology and veloc ity were improved significantly over those in fresh semen only when GW F-SU was used. GWF alone resulted only in a significantly higher recov ery of motile spermatozoa. In semen preparation, 10% of spermatozoa wi th normal morphology appeared to be the cut-off point as there was a s ignificantly higher recovery in fresh semen samples containing > 10% m orphologically normal spermatozoa after GWF-SU. Outcome of IVF-ET foll owing preparation with GWF-SU showed better results in comparison to t he swim-up procedure alone, though this difference was not statistical ly significant. The cut-off point was also > 10% morphologically norma l spermatozoa. Improvement in all aspects of IVF-ET occurred when nati ve semen contained > 10% morphologically normal spermatozoa. It is con cluded that GWF alone did not produce significantly better results but , in combination with swim-up, it resulted in significantly better spe rm morphology and in an improved outcome of IVF-ET for fresh semen sam ples with > 10% morphologically normal spermatozoa.