Successful treatment of failed AID cases by use of gamete intra-fallopian transfer using donor semen (GIFT (D))

Over a 13-month period in a newly opened assisted conception unit at the Women's Hospital, Liverpool, gamete intra-fallopian transfer using donor semen, GIFT (D) was offered to eighteen couples who had failed to conceive after numerous cycles of treatment with artificial insemination by donor semen (AID). The indication for the use of donor semen was either azo- or severe oligoaesthenospermia, and, in addition, the female partners have been exhaustively investigated with no major cause found to account for the couple's infertility. Using a basic clomiphene citrate and human menopausal gonadotrophin protocol it was possible to achieve a pregnancy rate of 56% per GIFT (D) cycle. As a consequence of these results it is now our policy to treat couples whose infertility is due to an unresolvable male factor with AID for 12 cycles only. If they have been unsuccessful in achieving a pregnancy after this time, they are offered GIFT (D).