IMPACT OF CRYOPRESERVATION ON SPERMATOZOA FROM INFERTILE MEN - IMPLICATIONS FOR ARTIFICIAL-INSEMINATION

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of cryopreserva tion-thawing on the quality of sperm from men with subfertile semen pa rameters. Twenty-seven patients with teratozoospermia, six of whom als o had asthenozoospermia, were studied and their sperm parameters were compared to those of fertile donors (n = 71) in their fresh, post-thaw , and washed samples. After thawing, the percentage decrease in motili ty was significantly greater in patients than in donors, but the motil ity yield (postthaw motility/prethaw motility) reached an average of 5 8% in the patient group vs. 68% in the donors (p = .02). No single cha racteristic of the fresh samples from patients or donors could signifi cantly predict post-thaw outcome. For the patient group, however, mult iple regression analysis provided a cutoff sperm concentration (50 x 1 0(6)/mL) and motility (40%) below which a very poor post-thaw recovery was obtained. The frozen-thawed-washed specimens had significantly hi gher velocity than the frozen-thawed samples, both in patients and don ors. The results suggest that some patients with teratoasthenozoosperm ia yield acceptable sperm parameters after freezing-thawing-washing, a nd therefore these ejaculates could be used individually (or pooled) i n artificial insemination.