Karyotype screening of potential sperm donors for artificial insemination

Cytogenetic studies were carried out in 100 potential semen donors for artificial insemination (AI) before they underwent the routine procedures for acceptance or rejection into the programme, namely medical history, physical examination and blood and semen analyses. Results were only compared at the end of the study. In 80 cases, the karyotype was normal; 12 males showed polymorphic chromosome variants; seven had pericentric inversions of heterochromatic regions; one had a short inversion of chromosome 2; and in one case centromere fragility was observed. Six of the 12 males with normal variants were accepted into the programme and four of them had fathered from one to 13 normal children at the end of the study; the other six had been rejected, four of them because of abnormal seminograms, and another two because the motility control of the frozen semen was negative. Of the seven males with pericentric inversions, one dropped out of the programme; four were accepted and three of them had produced from two to five normal children at the end of the study; two had been rejected due to abnormal seminograms. The individual with centromere fragility was accepted and had produced four normal children at the end of the series. Our conclusion is that although cytogenetic studies of potential donors for AI would be desirable, routine screening for chromosome anomalies is not justified at present.