Fecundability rates from an infertile male population.

Area of Science:

• Reproductive Medicine
• Andrology
• Infertility Research

Background:

• Infertility affects numerous couples seeking medical assistance.
• Evaluating male factor infertility is crucial for understanding conception rates.
• Female fertility is often assessed first, leaving male factors less defined.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify fecundability in couples with normal female investigation results, stratified by male sperm parameters.
• To establish baseline conception rates for untreated male infertility.
• To assess the impact of sperm density and infertility duration on monthly conception rates.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 279 couples with normal female fertility from a larger cohort (955 couples).
• Calculation of fecundability (monthly conception rate) over the first year of follow-up.
• Stratification of fecundability based on husband's sperm density and duration of infertility.

Main Results:

• Fecundability ranged from 0.4% (azoospermic husband) to 5.9% (≥10 million motile sperm/ml).
• Conception rates were strongly dependent on both sperm count and duration of involuntary infertility.
• These rates reflect an untreated population due to limited male infertility treatments.

Conclusions:

• Male sperm parameters are a primary determinant of fecundability in couples with normal female investigations.
• Infertility duration significantly modifies conception rates even with similar sperm parameters.
• The reported fecundability rates serve as a vital baseline for evaluating new male infertility treatments.