Andrological Methods of Predicting the Pregnancy Outcome of an \u3ci\u3ein vitro\u3c/i\u3e Fertilization Program

Current advances in fertility treatment emphasize extracorporeal procedures, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF)/embryo transfer. IVF is now used to treat several types of infertility, including male factor and idiopathic infertility. However, IVF is time consuming, costly, unpredictable, and often yields a low pregnancy rate. Thus, it would be valuable to devise laboratory procedures for better prediction of IVF outcome. The male infertility rate can be as high as 50%. Since sperm count and percent of motility alone do not appear to be strong predictors of IVF outcome especially when these parameters are not severely abnormal, a multivariable analysis of other parameters was made. In addition, because many IVF centers use swim-up preparations of semen samples for insemination, whole semen and swim-up samples obtained for IVF were analyzed. Major sperm motion characteristics (such as sperm mean velocity and linearity), adenosine triphosphate (ATP), creatine kinase (CK) activity in whole semen and sperm, hypoosmotic swelling test (HOST), and sperm morphology were evaluated