Successful treatment of retrograde ejaculation with sperm recovered from bladder washings. A report of two cases

Retrograde ejaculation causes < 2% of male infertility but is the leading cause of aspermia. The incidence of retrograde ejaculation is increasing due to the aggressiveness of modern urologic cancer surgery and an increase in diabetes mellitus. Generally, the only adverse effect is on fertility. Various approaches have been proposed for treatment, ranging from insemination with sperm-rich urine obtained after masturbation to intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). We used a protocol involving bladder washing.

Case 1 involved a man with retrograde ejaculation secondary to a successful right orchiectomy and retroperitoneal lymph node dissection for stage B1 embryonal cell carcinoma. He was treated with bladder washing and intrauterine insemination. He fathered three children from six insemination cycles. Case 2 involved a man with idiopathic retrograde ejaculation and a wife with ovulatory dysfunction. He received treatment similar to that in case 1 and fathered one child from two insemination cycles.

Larger studies need to be done specifically comparing treatments. Our method resulted in four normal infants in two couples over eight total insemination cycles and, taken together with other results from the literature, seems a good choice for clinicians who are treating retrograde ejaculation for the first time. We agree with others who have recommended that in vitro fertilization/ICSI not be the first step for treating the usual couples with retrograde ejaculation.