Reproductive capacity of spermatozoa from men with testicular failure

Controversial reports have been published about the influence of sperm sour ce and of the underlying testicular pathology on success rates of intracyto plasmic sperm injection (ICSI), In this controlled study, ICSI treatment cy cles with testicular spermatozoa from men with obstructive and non-obstruct ive azoospermia were compared with ICSI ejaculated sperm cycles with semen parameters less than or equal to 5x10(6)/ml and less than or equal to 10% p rogressive motility, The control cases were matched for female age, rank of trial, female basal follicle-stimulating hormone serum concentrations and close proximity to the study group's procedure. The fertilization, cleavage , pregnancy and abortion rates were similar in matched groups irrespective of the type of azoospermia, However, the implantation rate in the non-obstr uctive azoospermic patient group was significantly lower than that in the m atched ejaculated sperm group (13.4% versus 26%, P = 0.05). On the other ha nd, no impairment of the implantation rate was observed in the obstructive azoospermic patient group. These data show that testicular pathology has a negative impact on reproductive performance of testicular spermatozoa, resu lting in a decreased implantation potential without any apparent effect on fertilization and early preimplantation development.