Antibiotische Behandlung der unspezifischen Leukozytospermie vor In-vitro-Fertilisation: Ergebnisse einer kontrollierten Studie

Abstract

Objective : In order to evaluate the effects of antibiotic treatment on semen quality and outcome of IVF therapy in asymptomatic infertile patients a prospetive, controlled, randomized study was performed. Patients and Methods: In male patients attending our infertility clinic semen analysis was performed according to WHO criteria (1992). Patients with ≥10 6 leukocytes/ml ejaculate and ≤10 4 bacterialml ejaculate were randomly allocated to antibiotic treatment or control. 156 consecutive patients were included in the study. Patients in the treatment group and their partners received 200 mg doxicyclin/d for 10 days. In the control group no specific antibiotic treatment was performed. Patients in both groups were reexamined after 4-6 weeks at the time of oocyte retrieval for IVF. Results: The administration of doxicyclin had no effects on leukocyte concentration, nor on sperm concentration, progressive motility or percentage of normal morphology. There was no difference between treatment and control group with respect to fertilization rate in vitro and pregnancy rate after IVF treatment. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that short term treatment with doxicyclin for asymptomatic leukocytospermia does not affect seminal leukocyte concentration nor does it improve pregnancy rates achieved by IVF treatment.