ARTIFICIAL-INSEMINATION AND IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION USING DONOR SPERMATOZOA - A REPORT ON 15 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

Donor insemination (DI) using cryopreserved semen commenced at The Roy al Women's Hospital in 1976, Over the next 15 years we performed 5953 treatment cycles to achieve 816 pregnancies (13.7% per cycle) and 706 live births. In-vitro fertilization (IVF) using donor spermatozoa comm enced in 1986. Over the next 5 years we performed 303 treatment cycles for 185 couples, Including subsequent transfer of cryopreserved embry os, a total of 33% of couples achieved a successful pregnancy by IVF. Statistical analysis indicated that, for DI pregnancies, the most impo rtant semen variable was the percentage post-thaw motility, whilst for normal fertilization in IVF it was the pre-freeze motility, These res ults may be explained by the compensatory effects of post-thaw process ing of spermatozoa for IVF, but not for DI in our clinic.