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Updated: Aug 8, 2026
Sperm Collection of Differential Quality Using Density Gradient Centrifugation
Published on: November 29, 2018
A randomized, prospective analysis of five sperm preparation techniques before intrauterine insemination of husband
D T Carrell1, P H Kuneck, C M Peterson
1Division of Urology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City 84132, USA. dCARRELL@MSSCC.MED.UTAH.EDU
Objective:
To evaluate pregnancy rates (PRs) in women undergoing artificial insemination with sperm alternately prepared by one of five techniques: sperm washing, Percoll gradient centrifugation, swim-up, swim-down, or refrigeration/heparin treatment.
Design:
Each treatment group alternated in a different order through the five sperm preparations. Pregnancy rates were compared for each sperm preparation.
Setting:
Two infertility centers, one located in an academic institution and the other a regional hospital.
Patient(S):
Three hundred sixty-three women undergoing 898 artificial inseminations with husband semen with a progressive motile sperm count of >20 million sperm per mL were randomly placed in the five treatment groups.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Pregnancy rates.
Result(S):
The overall ongoing PR per insemination was 9.7% (87/898), including 6.12% for natural cycles (n = 196), 12.8% for clomiphene citrate-stimulated cycles (n = 101), and 10.3% for gonadotropin-stimulated cycles (n = 601). The highest ongoing PRs for sperm preparations followed the swim-up technique (13.2%, 26/197) and the Percoll gradient centrifugation technique (12.7%, 26/204).
Conclusion(S):
These data suggest that the swim-up and Percoll gradient preparations result in higher PRs than the wash, swim-down, and refrigeration/heparin techniques.
