INFERTILITY EVALUATION IN FERTILE WOMEN - A MODEL FOR ASSESSING THE EFFICACY OF INFERTILITY TESTING

A standard infertility evaluation consists of a semen analysis, hyster osalpingogram, post-coital test, endometrial biopsy and laparoscopy. A lthough these tests are well grounded in clinical experience, informat ion on their ability to discriminate between fertile and infertile cou ples is limited. In this study, we performed standard infertility test s plus two others-sperm antibodies and cervical culture for Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum-on fertile and infertile couples. Women in the fertile group were selected from those who had delivered a child within the previous 2 years and who were scheduled for a lapar oscopic tubal ligation. Women in the infertile group were selected fro m those presenting for an infertility evaluation (mean duration of inf ertility 4.2 years), and they were matched by age (+/-3 years) and rac e with fertile subjects. Subjects were recruited from both private and clinic patients. A total of 64 couples (32 matched pairs) completed t he evaluation. At least one 'abnormal' infertility test was found in 6 9% of fertile and 84% of infertile couples. With the exception of tuba l damage and endometriosis, which as expected were more common in infe rtile couples, no significant differences between groups for remaining infertility factors could be demonstrated. Despite the small size of the current study, these results confirm the feasibility and importanc e of comparisons of the prevalence of infertility factors in fertile a nd infertile couples.