The Correlation Between Semen Parameters and Pregnancy Outcome after Intrauterine Insemination

Backgroud: Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is generally attempted before proceeding to more expensive and invasive assisted reproductive techniques such as invitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). This procedure is most commonly performed as a therapeutic method for couples with a wide variety of subfertility etiologies, such as low count or low motility of sperm, or an incompatibility between the sperm and the cervical mucus. The objective of this clinical trial study was to compare the correlation between the semen parameters and pregnancy rates in patients undergoing hyperstimulation and IUI. Materials and Methods: 336 infertile couples that underwent 336 cycles of IUI with washed husband’s semen were included in this study. All patients’ charts were reviewed for age, etiology and duration of infertility, semen characteristics and pregnancy rates. The SPSS 9 software and Chisquare tests were applied for statistical analysis. P<0.05 was determined as statistical significance. Results: Total pregnancy rates were18.2% (61 out of 336 cycles). Postwash semen parameters including: sperm count ≥10× 10 ,motility ≥50% (grade III and IV >20%) had significant effect on pregnancy rates after IUI. The Outcome of this procedure was not significantly affected by female age, duration or etiology of infertility. Conclusion: Postwash semen quality was the most important factor for predication of successful pregnancy in this study.