Duration of vitality and migrating ability of human spermatozoa cryopreserved at +4 degrees C

Non-freezing cold storage of sperm may provide a useful means for repeated AIH or AID by using the same semen sample and avoiding expensive and complicated freezing procedures. By a simple method of resuspending sperm in a yolk and glycerol based preserving solution, the samples were kept in a standard refrigerator up to 96 hours. Motility patterns as well as in vitro migration of spermatozoa remained unaltered until 24 hours. After this time however, a rapid deterioration began so that at 48 hours all parameters had decreased with high significance as compared to controls. Between 48 hours and 96 hours the impairment of motility and migration went further, though at a slower pace.