title: Contraindication of ART following a sperm FISH analysis, even though only 12% of the spermatozoa had enlarged heads.
abstract: We report on a couple with a five-year history of idiopathic primary infertility. Two early miscarriages had followed intrauterine insemination (IUI). The man's fertility was then re-evaluated, in order to establish whether or not IUI was the best treatment option. Although the semen parameters were normal (sperm concentration: 89 million/ml; progressive motility: 40%; percentage of typical forms: 20%), a computer-assisted sperm morphology analysis with strict criteria found that 12% of the spermatozoa had enlarged heads. All of the latter had a normal form and none had multiple flagella. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis, we found that the proportion of aneuploid and diploid spermatozoa was 78% for the sample as a whole and 68% for normally-shaped spermatozoa with a normal-sized head. Although treatment options are well documented for men with macrocephalic sperm head syndrom, there is no consensus on individuals with a low but non-negligible proportion of spermatozoa with enlarged heads. Here, our FISH results contraindicated the use of assisted reproductive technology with the man's sperm. The couple decided to resort to donor sperm.
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproductive Biology, Dreux Hospital, Dreux, France. brunoguthauser@gmail.com
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Guthauser
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Boitrelle
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Albert
authors.forename: Fadoua
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ketata
authors.forename: Celine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meynant
authors.forename: Fatma
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferfouri
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Selva
authors.forename: Francois
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vialard
mesh_terms: D000782:Aneuploidy; D000075202:Contraindications; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted; D055101:Semen Analysis; D013077:Sperm Head / Q000473:pathology*