The Correlation Between Semen Parameters and Pregnancy Outcome after Intrauterine Insemination

Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is generally attempted before proceeding to moreexpensive and invasive assisted reproductive techniques such as invitro fertilization (IVF) andintracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). This procedure is most commonly performed as atherapeutic method for couples with a wide variety of subfertility etiologies, such as low count orlow motility of sperm, or an incompatibility between the sperm and the cervical mucus. Theobjective of this clinical trial study was to compare the correlation between the semen parametersand pregnancy rates in patients undergoing hyperstimulation and IUI.

336 infertile couples that underwent 336 cycles of IUI with washedhusband’s semen were included in this study. All patients’ charts were reviewed for age, etiologyand duration of infertility, semen characteristics and pregnancy rates. The SPSS 9 software and Chisquaretests were applied for statistical analysis. P<0.05 was determined as statistical significance.

Total pregnancy rates were18.2% (61 out of 336 cycles). Postwash semen parametersincluding: sperm count ≥10× 106, motility ≥50% (grade III and IV >20%) had significant effect onpregnancy rates after IUI. The Outcome of this procedure was not significantly affected by femaleage, duration or etiology of infertility.

Postwash semen quality was the most important factor for predication of successfulpregnancy in this study.