TRANSRECTAL ELECTROEJACULATION COMBINED WITH IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION -EFFECTIVE TREATMENT OF ANEJACULATORY INFERTILITY DUE TO SPINAL-CORD INJURY

Infertility due to spinal cord injury (SCI) in young men is a frequent complication of their injury. When the simpler methods of management of the erectile and ejaculatory dysfunction that invariably follow the more severe types of SCI are not effective, then semen production by transrectal electroejaculation (TREE) combined with in-vitro fertiliza tion (IVF) and embryo transfer is effective, A retrospective analysis is presented of data on the treatment and outcome of 35 couples who wi shed to have a family but in whom the male partner had suffered SCI. T hese 35 couples had 71 attempts at IVF with spermatozoa obtained follo wing TREE, Normal fertilization and cleavage of the embryos occurred i n 48.2% of the oocytes. Fresh embryos were transferred in 54 cycles an d frozen-thawed embryos in 14 cycles. In all, 18 clinical pregnancies were achieved in 54 fresh and 14 frozen embryo transfer cycles, with a live birth rate of 16.5% (14/85) per treatment cycle started, 20.6% ( 14/68) per transfer cycle and 40.0% (14/35) per couple who started tre atment, in a mean of 1.9 transfer cycles. We conclude that TREE combin ed with IVF and embryo transfer is an effective treatment for the infe rtility problems associated with SCI.