INTERINDIVIDUAL AND INTRAINDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY OF SPERM MORPHOLOGY AFTER SELECTION WITH 3 DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES - LAYERING, SWIMUP FROM PELLET AND PERCOLL

Sperm morphology has been suggested to be one of the most reliable fac tor in predicting male fertility potential both in spontaneous cycles and in assisted reproduction. In this work the morphology of spermatoz oa selected with three different techniques (layering, swimup from pel let and mini-percoll) has been assessed and compared in 20 infertile p atients. All the techniques allowed the recovery of sperm populations of a better quality than in basal samples, with a higher percentage of normal forms (p<0.001). No significant differences were observed amon g the three different techniques in selecting sperm populations. The s catter diagrams comparing pairwise differences between the methods aga inst their means regard the percentage of normal forms selected show a great (over 20%) inter and intra-individual variability. These data d emonstrate that the three techniques select different percentages of n ormal spermatozoa, even in the same patient. Since it is crucial to ob tain the highest number of morphologically normal and motile spermatoz oa and each technique may provide different results in a given patient , we suggest that at least two techniques of sperm selection be perfor med before assisted reproduction procedures. This combined testing cou ld also be relevant in the prognostic evaluation of the infertile male , since it explores the different characteristics of sperm function.