THE EFFECT OF UROGENITAL MYCOPLASMAS ON SEMEN QUALITY - AN EXPERIENCEFROM A TEACHING HOSPITAL IN SAUDI-ARABIA

Objectives: (1) To study the relationship between the presence of urog enital mycoplasmas (ureaplasma urealyticum and mycoplasma hominis) (Uu ,Mh) and the abnormal results of semen specimens from patients complai ning of infertility. (2) To check the efficacy of the mycofast kit for the detection and antibiotic susceptibility testing of urogenital myc oplasmas, Methods: Two hundred and twenty-five seminal fluid specimens collected from patients complaining mainly of infertility, who attend ed various clinics at King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH) Riyadh, w ere investigated. The investigations included examination of semen par ameters according to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. The my cofast screen and confirmation kit (Mycoplasma International-France) w as used to detect the presence and antibiotic susceptibility of urogen ital mycoplasmas according to the manufacturer's directions. Results: Urogenital mycoplasmas were grown from 58 (25.8%) of specimens. Fifty- four specimens grew Uu alone while 4 specimens showed mixed growth of Uu and Mh. The parameters mostly affected were the volume, sperm count , the % viable count and motility, None of these parameters showed a s tatistically significant difference when compared to the mycoplasma ne gative specimens. Out of the 54 Uu isolates, 13 were resistant to cipr ofloxacin while 4 were resistant to tetracycline, minocycline and cipr ofloxacin. On the other hand, 3 isolates were resistant to tetracyclin e and minocycline. Conclusions: No statistically significant differenc e was found between semen quality from urogenital mycoplasma positive and urogenital mycoplasma negative semen specimens. Therefore, male fe rtility appears not to be affected by the presence of urogenital mycop lasma thus screening of semen specimens for the presence of urogenital mycoplasma is not recommended.