Abstract

This study was designed to assess the impact of swim up preparation of both fresh and cryopreserved sperm on the pregnancy outcome in a private fertility centre in Lagos. A cross-sectional prospective analysis of 34 asthenozoospermic semen samples of men whose wives were undergoing assisted reproduction was studied. The basic semen parameters comprising of the volume, count, and motility of the sperm before and after swim up preparations with pregnancy outcome were measured. For fresh semen (n = 28, mean age = 37.0 ± 1.1 years, mean volume = 2.16 ± 0.1 ml), the sperm count decreased significantly (p<0.01) from the  pre swim up value of 55.4 ± 3.10 to 44.6 ± 3.20 x 10⁶/ml post swim up. While, the motility increased significantly (p<0.01) from 39.6 ± 3.84 to 58.5 ± 4.29%. The percentage pregnancy outcome in the fresh semen was 66%. For the cryopreserved semen (n = 6, mean age = 41.0 ± 5.4 years, mean volume = 1.8 ± 0.1 ml), the sperm count decreased significantly (p<0.01) from pre swim up value of 35.6 ± 3.03 to 33.3 ± 4.33 x 10⁶/ml post swim up, while the motility increased significantly (p<0.01) from 25.1 ± 4.01 to 32.8 ± 6.18%. The pregnancy outcome of cryopreserved was 30%. The pregnancy outcome was higher with fresh than the cryopreserved semen. However, the motility was a significant indicator for the successful outcome. Swim up procedure improve the motility of both cryopreserved and fresh semen with a better pregnancy outcome in this study.

Key words: Cryopreserved sperm, fresh sperm, asthenozoospermia, swim up, sperm motility, pregnancy outcome, Lagos.