Preparation of human sperm for assisted conception: a comparative study

An ideal sperm preparation technique for assisted conception requires the capacity of accumulating in a relatively small volume the largest number of morphologically normal, viable sperm with good motility. Additionally, this extract of the ejaculate must be free of seminal plasma, leukocytes, bacteria, and other debris. In a comparison of the migration-sedimentation, SpermPrep, and swim-up techniques for sperm preparation, MS proved best at improving sperm motility and morphology in samples from both fertile and subfertile patients. In the fertile group, motility improved by 32% and morphology by 39%, while the subfertile group demonstrated improvements of 49% and 29%, respectively. SpermPrep produced the highest sperm yield after only 15 min of processing. The yield was in the region of 37% for the fertile group and 17% for the subfertile group. All samples demonstrated an improvement in the grade of progressive sperm motility and a decrease in debris content after processing with all three methods.