Barcelona (Spain), Feb 7 (EFE).- Using frozen sperm in in vitro fertilization achieves the same results as fresh semen, according to a study carried out on 7,969 couples by researchers from the Eugin Group.
The research, published in the journal ‘Human Reproduction’, is the largest sample analyzed in a scientific study of this type to date and has taken into account two novel factors: control of both the male and female factors and the use of ICSI technique, with which an egg is directly inseminated with a single sperm.
The research, published in the prestigious scientific journal ‘Human Reproduction’, wanted to find out the effect of slow freezing cryopreservation on reproductive outcomes.
As explained by the researcher Marc Torra-Massana, the majority of studies that compare the reproductive results between fresh and cryopreserved semen include male patients with severe pathologies, such as a decrease in motile sperm in a seminal sample, or women of advanced maternal age, where altered gamete quality may partially mask the full effect of freezing/thawing.
However, in this research they have only selected patients with normal semen samples and cycles with fresh oocytes from a good quality donor to control both the female and male factors.
“Although slow freezing sperm cryopreservation is common practice, the use of frozen-thawed semen often has reduced motility and vitality. However, its use for ICSI, a technique with which an ovum is inseminated by microinjection of a single previously selected spermatozoon, is considered adequate in terms of reproductive results,” Torra-Massana detailed.
“Thanks to the large sample, and the incorporation of these two factors in the research -he added-, we have managed to conclude that sperm cryopreservation has a clinically irrelevant impact after using the ICSI technique in in vitro fertilization processes, both in the fertilization rate as in the rate of babies born.
