Improvement in the cervical mucus penetration test by using standard spermcontrol

The objective of the present experiments was to establish an acceptable sta ndard for the cervical mucus penetration test (CMPT) by determining the min imal progressive motile spermatozoa concentration (PMSC) that will yield th e highest score for proven fertile donor sperm specimens. For this purpose, fresh and frozen-thawed samples were used. Semen was obtained from 29 fert ile donors and different PMSC (8, 10, and 14 x 10(6)/mL) were prepared for each sample. The same mucus specimen was used for testing each sperm sample in the three different dilutions. No difference in the scoring of the CMPT between the fresh vs, frozen-thawed groups was found. When PMSC of 14 x 10 (6)/mL was used. almost all specimens scored the highest rank. The present study revealed that only semen samples with a minimal PMSC of 14 x 10(6)/mL cells can be used in the CMPT. The information that the freeze-thaw proces s does not affect the CMPT results supports the concept of cryopreservation of pooled fertile donor specimens in aliquots with adequate concentration of progressive motile spermatozoa for later use as a CMPT control.