Brief communication: assessment and validation of nonspermicidal condoms as specimen collection sheaths for semen...

The choice of nonspermicidal sheaths for specimen collection for diagnosis and/or fertility treatment is limited. Those that are available tend to be relatively expensive and as a results, offered selectively to patients. This study describes the evaluation of three over-the-counter nonspermicidal condoms as alternatives to specialized specimen collection sheaths. Sheaths were incubated with motile sperm for up to 2 h and the percent Grade A motility, percent progressive motility and progressive velocity assessed using an 'in-house' computer-assisted semen analysis system every 30 min. Two of the sheaths tested, Pasante Naturelle (PN) and the Durex Avanti Ultima were shown to be highly toxic to sperm, leading to immobilization of most specimens within 1 h. However the loss of sperm motility when sperm were incubated with the Pasante Unique (PU) condom was no greater than with either the control (rigid 60 ml specimen container) or the Male Factor Pak (MFP), a commercially available specialized semen collection sheath. In conclusion, the PU brand of condom could be used as a cheaper alternative to the specimen collection sheaths currently available. Furthermore, some brands of condom sold as nonspermicidal are in fact toxic to sperm and will immobilize most specimens within 1 h.