IS MATCHING BETWEEN WOMEN AND DONORS FEASIBLE TO AVOID CYTOMEGALOVIRUS-INFECTION IN ARTIFICIAL-INSEMINATION WITH DONOR SEMEN

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common cause of congenital infection responsible for neonatal mortality, morbidity and later sequelae, Pri mary infection in the first half of pregnancy seems to have the worst outcome, CMV has been frequently recovered from human semen. In the se tting of artificial insemination with semen donors, matching recipient s and donors for CMV antibodies with the purpose of reserving seronega tive semen for seronegative women is a recommended strategy to avoid t he risk of a primary maternal CMV infection during pregnancy, We have reviewed the CMV seroprevalence in semen donors and candidates for ins emination in our centre, and compared it with the CMV seroprevalence o f blood donors. Without matching for CMV antibodies, the risk of a ser onegative recipient being inseminated with seropositive semen was 21%. The same risk calculated for blood donors was 17%, Matching semen don ors and recipients for CMV antibodies is possible as, in our study, 48 % of the recipients and 55% of the donors were seronegative. During se rological follow-up of CMV seronegative individuals in the fertility c entre, no seroconversion was observed among donors; two seroconversion s occurred in recipients, but not in relationship to therapeutic insem inations.