Long-term cryostorage of semen in a human sperm bank does not affect clinical outcomes
This retrospective study found that the long-term cryostorage of semen in a human sperm bank did not affect clinical pregnancy, abortion, or live-birth rates.
Volume 112, Issue 4, Pages 663–669.e1
Authors:
Chuan Huang, Ph.D.a, Lin Lei, M.S., Hui-Lan Wu, B.S., Run-Xin Gan, M.S., Xiao-Bo Yuan, M.S., Li-Qing Fan, Ph.D., Wen-Bing Zhu, Ph.D.
Abstract:
Objective
To evaluate the affect of the duration of donor sperm storage on pregnancy success among women undergoing assisted reproduction.
Design
Retrospective cross-sectional study.
Setting
Sperm bank.
Patient(s)
A total of 119,558 specimens retrieved using a clinical information database of young adult men who were qualified sperm donors at the Hunan Province Human Sperm Bank of China from 2001 to 2016.
Intervention(s)
Analysis of semen samples and clinical outcomes after semen use.
Main Outcome Measure(s)
Clinical information included semen parameters before and after freezing, clinical pregnancy, abortion and live birth rates after semen use.
Result(s)
The sperm's frozen-thaw survival rate decreased from 85.72% to 73.98% after 15 years of cryopreservation (P<.01). The clinical pregnancy rate of women undergoing artificial insemination with donor sperm was 23.09%, 22.36% and 22.32%, the clinical abortion rate was 10.06%, 10.02% and 12.00% and the live birth rate was 82.17%, 80.21% and 80.00% in the groups with 0.5–5, 6–10 and 11–15 storage years, respectively. The clinical pregnancy rate of women undergoing in vitro fertilization was 64.29%, 64.94% and 53.48%, the clinical abortion rate was 12.26%, 11.38% and 17.39% and the live birth rate was 81.63%, 79.11% and 73.91%, in the groups with 0.5–5, 6–10 and 11–15 years, respectively.
Conclusion(s)
The long-term cryostorage of semen in a human sperm bank does not affect clinical outcomes. However, cryopreservation longer than 5 years negatively influenced the quality of frozen-thawed donor sperm samples.
Comments
This is excellent data on a topic that patients ask about commonly. Did the authors look at any groups more than 15 years? Also, were different cryopreservation protocols used?