ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the pregnancy rate after intrauterine insemination using samples with. processed total motile count of 1.0 x 106 and less and describe the semen quality profile of Filipino males with severe male factor infertility in both the raw and processed semen samples. Design: Retrospective descriptive study. Setting: Andrology Laboratory, St. Luke's Medical Center. Patients: 307 infertile Filipino couples who underwent 426 IUI cycles. Main Outcome Measures: Pregnancy rate (PR) after intrauterine insemination. Results: A total of 10 pregnancies were obtained out of 426 IUI cycles, for a pregnancy rate per cycle of 2.4%. Seven of these eventually delivered to term, for a live birth rate of 1.6%. Among those who did not get pregnant with IUI, 8 had spontaneous pregnancies within 1 to 5 year period of follow-up for a spontaneous pregnancy rate of 1.9%. As expected, all the semen parameters analysed showed improvement after semen processing in all subjects. However, these improvements failed to result in a more acceptable pregnancy rate. Among the parameters, morphology was notably better among those who had pregnancies. Conclusion: The chance of pregnancy with IUI using semen samples with processed total motile count of 1.0 x 106 or less is relatively low. For these couples, it may be more prudent to proceed directly to IVF-ICSI than to try several cycles of IUI in futility.
