Relationship between Type A spermatozoa motility in the ejaculate of infertile treated men and the incidence of pregnancy achieved with artificial insemination

Objective: Aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between Type A spermatozoa motility in ejaculate of treated infertile men and incidence of pregnancy achieved with artificial insemination. Materials and methods. 72 infertile males from couples with only male infertility, were included in the study. Seminal fluid was assayed according to the World Health Organization guidelines and semen was prepared through gradient density for insemination. Couples were followed to evaluate pregnancy occurrence. Four categories of Type A spermatozoa were identified: first = 0-10%, second = 11-30%, third = 31-50% and fourth = 51-100%. Data were analyzed using the logistic regression model to estimate the relative risk (RR). Results. Pregnancy rates in the four Type A spermatozoa categories were: 11.8% (SE = 7.8), 45.0% (SE = 11.1), 26.7% (SE = 11.4) and 30.0% (SE = 10.3). Using the first Type A spermatozoa category as reference, the second category was significantly different in pregnancy incidence (RR = 6.14, p-value = 0.0385), but no difference emerged in the third and fourth category (RR = 2.7, p-value = 0.2924 and RR = 3.2, p-value = 0.1931). Conclusions. This study shows that having Type A spermatozoa percentage lower than 10% is an unfavorable factor, whereas the highest number of pregnancies occurred with spermatozoa in the 11-30% category. Further percentage increase of Type A spermatozoa did not improve the pregnancy rate. Notwithstanding the little sample size, these data suggest that a significant relation exists between Type A spermatozoa in the ejaculate and pregnancy rate.