NO EVIDENCE FOR A DECREASED FERTILIZING POTENTIAL AFTER IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION USING SPERMATOZOA FROM POLYZOOSPERMIC MEN

Polyzoospermia is generally recognized as a male factor contributing t o infertility and/or recurrent abortion. Although a reduced spermatozo al fertilizing capacity is assumed to be involved, so far there is no conclusive explanation for the assumed reduced reproductive performanc e in these patients, and data on the fertilizing capacity of spermatoz oa from polyzoospermic men are lacking. The present study therefore ai med at analysing the outcome after in-vitro fertilization (IVF)-embryo transfer in polyzoospermic patients. Retrospective analysis showed th at only 0.5% out of 7863 IVF cycles were performed with spermatozoa fr om polyzoospermic men. The outcome of these IVF cycles shows neither a reduction in spermatozoal fertilizing capacity nor an increase in pre gnancy wastage in cycles in which a pregnancy was obtained. These resu lts may suggest a normal reproductive potential:in polyzoospermic pati ents and therefore the question may be raised whether polyzoospermia r epresents a real pathological entity leading to infertility.