[Artificial insemination donor and female fertility (author's transl)]

The authors have reviewed 140 cases of AID using frozen sperm in fine straws. With a follow-up of one year from the date the last couple was brought into the survey, the crude percentage for conception is 65 and can reach up to 73.3% with a mean rate of conception per cycle of 10% in couples who carry on for a minimum of six cycles. The ability of the sperm to fertilise seems comparable whether they come from one or other of two centres for the study and storage of human sperm. The level for conception is less affected by features such as whether the sperm is fresh or frozen, or the number of spermatozoa that have been inseminated, than by the patient's age and also her fertility, in which also psycho-emotional factors have to be taken into account, but these are difficult to qualify. When the causes of lowered female fertility are able to be pinpointed and are curable, the hope for a successful pregnancy from AID should approach that found in so-called normal patients.