Pregnancy Outcome of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection in Relation to Duration of Cryopreservation of Spermatozoa Obtained through Testicular Sperm Extraction

Abstract

Objectives: Freezing and in vitro culture of testicular spermatozoa or tissue are reliable approaches for the management of azoospermic patients and could all for the possibility of multiple IVF-ICSI procedures. However, the effect of cryopreservation duration on pregnancy outcome had been not fully examined. To analyze pregnancy outcome in patients underwent ICSI procedure in relation to duration of cryopreservation of the sperms. Materials: The present study included 62 couples who underwent to 255 cycles of ICSI; during the period from January 2013 to June 2014; in the International Islamic Centre for Population Studies and Researches. Couples of whom, male partner suffered from azoospermia underwent TESE for cryopreservation was included. Thawed testicular spermatozoa were used subsequently for an ICSI cycle. Women included in this study had also received routine infertility work-up. Frozen-thawed embryos were transferred on day 3–5. Clinical and ongoing pregnancy was defined as the presence of a gestational sac by transvaginal ultrasound in the 5th to 7th gestational week and the existence of a fetal heart beat at 12 weeks. Patient characteristics and pregnancy outcomes were documented.Results: The duration of cryopreservation had no effect on ICSI outcome, except significant difference between different groups as regard to cleavage rate (the higher cleavage rate was observed in second group, then fourth, fifth, first and third groups (it was 96.74±8.71, 94.50±8.82, 93.50±12.0, 92.35±12.47 and then 89.20±13.69 respectively). In addition, females in different groups were comparable as regard to personal characteristics.Conclusion: Duration of cryopreservation had no effect on pregnancy outcome.