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.
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